


Said I Loved You But I Lied

by GothicHeaven



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, gang involvement
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-11
Updated: 2013-09-01
Packaged: 2017-11-18 11:08:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 66,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/560370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothicHeaven/pseuds/GothicHeaven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto confesses that he didn't love Hinata but he had lied. At the same time Sasuke tells Sakura the same thing and she takes it badly. How does little Hinata cope with this and what does Sasuke have to do with it? Will this be the last time she's being lied to or is it just the beginning?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Hinata smiled lightly as Naruto led her down the halls of their school. It was a good day for her. The sun was shining, her father ate dinner with them, Hanabi was actually bouncy this morning, Neji drove relatively normal today and her boyfriend was taking her somewhere where they could be alone for alittle. Everything was great. She paused in her thoughts when Naruto brought them to a stop under a huge tree. It's leaves were the reds and oranges that autumn brought with it. Some fell lazily from the tree to land softly on the ground below. She smiled softly at him and he returned but it it soon became pained. He pulled his hand away from where it had been holding hers.

"Are you ok?" Hinata asked and he nodded.

"Yea. Just wanted to talk to you about a thing or two." he answered rocking on his feet alittle.

"About what?" she asked with a light frown.

"Us."

"U-us?" Hinata asked. Her nervousness showed in her stuttering. He nodded.

"Don't... well... I don't know." the blond began, trying to find the words to use. "I lied."

"You lied?" Hinata asked

"Yea and now I'm going to hurt you." Naruto said a pained expression passed over his face. Hinata's nervousness peaked. Naruto wouldn't hurt her, not intentionally. "You see, I lied when I told you I liked you."

"W-w-what?"

"No, I mean, I like you but I don't LIKE you, you know?" he said almost pleadingly.

Hinata couldn't move. There was no way this could be happening, he couldn't be serious. Yet, there was so much sincerity in his eyes.

"I mean, I thought I did for a while but I don't and I still lied that I did." she heard him continue but she just couldn't listen. She stared at him as he continued to speak. Her shoulders slumped. Another girl.

"Who?" Hinata asked and he froze. He had forgotten she could talk with how she had gone deathly silent.

"Um, Ino." he had the decency to blush pink.

"Oh.…" she mumbled. He stared at her waiting for her to say more but she had already locked her mind away in her own thoughts 'Why her? She has everything! She's pretty, fun, bouncy, exciting, blond, pretty, fashionable and happy all the time! She's energetic. What am I? Boring, plain, dull. I don't even dress like the other girls. I could never do it, everybody would look at me. He's a bundle of energy, someone like me must be killing him on the inside.'

She was so immersed in her thought she never noticed the tear that left her or heard the soft 'goodbye' or saw him back away slowly in a non-threatening way.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, on the other side of the school, something very similar was taking place but Sakura just wasn't taking it that well. She was in tears, loudly sobbing.

"You can't be serious!" Sakura screamed grabbing him by his more-expensive-than-she-could-ever-buy-on-her-own shirt. She clutched onto him looking up at his face with tear filled eyes. "You love me Sasuke. We love each other so much."

"Sakura, I don't love you." he said doing his best to get her hands off him without tearing the shirt or stretching it. That was one of the many reasons he didn't like her. She was always touching him, always hanging all over him. She just couldn't keep her hands off. He managed to throwing her hands off. "I don't even like you."

"But I love you Sasuke!" she said grabbing towards him again. He stepped back to avoid them. "You can't just break up with me!"

"That's what I'm doing. Don't even sit beside me in class." he told her. She looked at him wide eyes.

"But-"

"No." he interrupted firmly while sending her a glare. "We are finished, period."

"But-" his next glare silenced her immediately. She dissolved in tears. Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned away. She watched him go. He'd soon realise that they were meant to be then he'd come back to her and they could be together again. 'He'll see. We're meant to be.'

XXXXX

Sasuke watched as the dumb blonde sitting beside the other blonde chattered away to that blond. That was the seat Sakura usually sat at when she wasn't having all over him. The really question was: why was Naruto over there? He should be beside him. Or over in the corner where that girlfriend of his usually sat but Sakura was occupying that space now (she came in a little after him). Come to think of it where was the girl? If he remembered correctly she was never late.

'Probably didn't come to school.' he deduced. It's not like he kept a tab on the whereabouts of anyone but a choice few (and even then it was only now and again) least of all one of the very least important persons in the school. Why Naruto would date her was beyond him anyway. Sure she was likely rich but what else did she have? Didn't he have a project to do with her? What ever.

To be truthful he was sick and tired of girls. Especially the ones that just threw themselves at him. He was glad he was finally taking a break from them. He had no intention of dating again until next year, that was about three months away. The only thing left was for all the other girls to leave him alone. That, he guessed, would never happen.

Finally their biology teacher, everybody called him Kabuto though he preferred Mr. Yakushi, entered the room and began the lesson. They were half-way through when Hinata finally made an appearance. And what an appearance that was. Her hair was mused and littered with leaves and grass. Her clothes though smudged with dirt in some places, didn't show it against it's dark colours. The room was silent as she mumbled a 'sorry I'm late' to Kabuto and shuffled to the back to the only available seat. Sasuke watched out of the corner of his eyes as the dishevelled girl sat beside him. He took in her rugged appearance as Kabuto continued his lesson.

"You were crying." he stated just loud enough for her to hear. She turned shocked eyes to him. She nodded. He gave her a bored look in return. "You should look in a mirror."

"I don't care." she said quietly. "I feel as horrible as I look. It matches."

He stared at her for a moment. Even with all that mess, she still had a slight beauty.

'Yea right.' he turned away from her. He didn't see how someone like her could ever look beautiful. "Suit yourself."

"Now." Kabuto was saying. "Let me remind you of your projects. In your pairs you will each be presenting on a topic that you will be receiving today. Please remember presentations begin next week Tuesday. One person from each pair come pick a topic then begin planning with your partner."

Sasuke watched as a crowd began to form around Kabuto. He was not going up there, there were too many people. He looked at Hinata, she was staring at the desk lost in her own world. Was she always like this? So lost? He poked her with his pen. She turned a blank look onto him.

"Go get the topic."

"Why don't you get it?" she told him and turned back to her staring. Did she, a girl, just talk back to him?

"Because the pink haired banshee is up there." Sasuke said with a glare. He was not going anywhere near that girl. Why didn't she just get up and go already?"

"So is the blond." she levelled him with another blank stare. His brow arched slightly and looked up at the crowd. The only blond up there was Naruto but why would she be avoiding him? They were together weren't they? He narrowed his eyes in an attempt to scare her to go. She merely stared bank at him with the same blank look as before.

'What's up with her?' he mentally yelled. Uchiha's don't scream, they make a manly sound called yelling which they rarely use (if at all) outside of the confines of their own head. Some don't even use it in their head. It was very unprofessional and went against everything Uchiha.

"Well it seems the two of you can't leave each other already." Kabuto's voice crooned from above them. They both looked up, in Sasuke's case glared up, at him. He held a strip of paper to them with a smile that was completely fake. It usually would have made Hinata skin crawl but she wasn't paying much attention to anything and she really didn't care to at the moment. "Genetics. Your presentation must be thorough."

Sasuke said nothing as he watched him leave. He didn't exactly like the man but he had to live with it. Now back to the matter of his partner. She still seemed off in her own world. This was going to kill him if this continued. He would kill her if this continued.

XXXXX

Hinata followed Sasuke slowly to his car. She had totally forgotten they ther were going to start working on the biology project. She really didn't feel like doing anything but go jonr throw herself in bed, cry and drown herself in rock music until she felt better. The feel better part would take a few days.

Sasuke mentally rolled his eyes when he saw the zombie girl copy his movements to a stop. He was tempered to test it and wave his arm around just to see if she would do it too. the project would never get anywhere like this.

"Look." he began and she lifted her pale eyes to his. He could see everything there: pain hurt sorrow. Everything she was feeling. The girl was numb to everything else. "I don't know what happened but I can guess and I'll tell you now, it happens. You can either accept it and move on or don't and have it ruin you."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

You can either accept it and move on or don't and have it ruin you.

His words echoed in her head. They wouldn't leave her alone. Ever since the talk by his car right through the night and now that she was awake again she could still hear them. Now here she was lying in her bed, not wanting to go to school. She was tired. She had hardly been able to get to sleep with what he said nagging her so much, not even Muse could get her to sleep.

She didn't want this to destroy her. She was always trying to be stronger. Something like this shouldn't destroy her. She tried so hard to be nice and likeable and polite and seen by Naruto only to get seen and dumped. Dumped! How could she not feel destroyed? How could she not be affected?

'What if I stopped trying?' she thought staring up at the ceiling. The thought was preposterous. 'If I did that Father would kill me.… but then I would be able to be myself and not try to please anyone.'

The heartache of the break-up did get to her. Did Naruto even care about how she felt? Just because she didn't get mad didn't mean she wasn't affected. It didn't mean that she wasn't hurt by this. Did he consider that?

'All this time I've been trying hard to be liked but I hardly even have any friends, only Temari and Ten-ten. Maybe I should change. Maybe I need to look at things differently. Maybe I need to work on me and stop being what people think I should be. There are so many times I don't want to be polite or nice.… Father would kill me for this.' she rubbed her stomach lightly in thought as she continued to stare at the ceiling. 'Ok today, I'll just observe then I'll try to decide if I should... then he will help me. Willingly or unconsciously.'

She sighed pulling the earphones out if her ears. "First step in Operation Self-change: get to school."

XXXXX

Getting out of Neji's car she began her walk to her class. She paid attention to just exactly who acknowledged her, who noticed her and those who didn't. She could count who noticed her on her fingers and only half of them acknowledged her. That just went to show how important she was as the eldest daughter of the president of Hyuga Corp. Neji on the other hand was greatly loved, everyone knew him. That was because he was on the football (soccer) team and one of their strikers. Naruto was on the team too. So was Lee, Kiba, Kankuro, Gaara, Chouji, Shino, Sasuke, some guy named Suigetsu, another one named Juugo and Shikamaru. Shikamaru and Gaara were goal keepers but Shikamaru was the captain. Then there were a few reserve players. Having an adopted brother and a boyfriend on the team and two girl friends that have connections to it caused a girl to know more about football than she normally would on her own. It also made her have a few friends that were on the team but even then they didn't talk much. They were the people who noticed and the few that acknowledged her. Temari and Ten-ten were nowhere in sight but that was to be expected since they were in a higher year than her.

It took no time to find Naruto and evidently it took no time for him to forget her. He was leaned on the lockers talking to a certain blond girl that was twirling her long and shiny hair in her fingers. They were laughing and gosh they looked good together. He didn't even notice when she walked past them. She quickly made it to her class and away from them. She only carried her folder in her bag for the day so she didn't need to stop at her locker at all for the day. It was right beside Naruto's so she didn't exactly want to go there anyway.

She entered her classroom and looked around at the few others that were already there. There was no one there that she actually talked to but there was one that she would have to talk to soon enough. She took a deep breath and began the walk to the back of the class room.

Sasuke paused in composing his very angry text to his brother when an unusual pair of feet sat beside him. 'Sneakers, small sneakers, creamy white skin and dark blue capris.' He followed the unattractive capris to an equally unattractive cream jacket to a veil of blue tinted shoulder length black hair. He watched this definitely unusual girl that even dared to just sit beside him and not ask first. As if feeling his gaze she looked up from her folder at him and their eyes caught. He looked into her quizzical pale eyes and frowned. A thin brow rose at him in mild shock. He must have glared at her by accident. Oh well. He smirked instead and watched confusion flood her eyes.

'Tch. Too easy to read.' he thought ignoring her and returning to his text-rant about hiding his socks. Would you believe Itachi had the gall to reply: "No little brother, you just don't know where the socks are usually put."?

He spent the rest of the day between texting angrily with Itachi about socks and his brother's evil way of hiding his things and watching the small unusual Hyuga girl. He hadn't realised he had at least three quarters of his classes with her until she suddenly decided to sit beside him in the morning. They hadn't spoken either but at least she wasn't the zombie she had been the day before. That had been exceedingly annoying. If anything today she was attentive. So attentive it almost seemed like she was trying to analyse everyone in every class. She had begun to ignore his moments of watchfulness after the first three times. She must have realised that he didn't want to do anything in school for the day and left him alone. If only other girls allowed him the luxury of not being bugged by them. He inwardly sighed at the thought. A girl on the other side of the Hyuga though, thought that he was looking at her and so wouldn't stop sending him looks and attempting to look attractive. It wasn't working. He was being blinded slowly but surely.

He was in the middle of one of his texts when he felt that the Hyuga had reversed the roles of the 'watcher' and the 'watched.' He finished what he was doing and looked back at her. There was silence between them.

"Teach me how to not care." she finally spoke.

'...' Sasuke's mind drew a blank. Not many persons actually talked to Sasuke but no one ever asked him to teach them anything especially how to not care. 'Is she implying that I don't care? Well she wouldn't really be wrong there but there are a few things I care about... Ok maybe only two things.'

"You mean to text in class?" he asked with no change in his facial features. "It's quite simple. You pick a contact, type a text and press send. Do you know the proper steps in texting?"

"That's not what I meant." she said turning a light pink that he thought she didn't know how to text. Which teenager didn't know how to do that? "I meant how not to care about anything."

"Why?"

"It would help me to accept things better. They wouldn't get to me." she told him. He was shocked that she would think of something like that. It was valid reasoning.

"Fine. We have a project to work on." he said looked away from her expressive eyes. "Tomorrow. In the library."

'Why did I accept? She's a nerd, a wimp and a girl. All of those care too much to not care!' he mentally berated himself. His face remained a blank slate of indifference while he had an internal argument with himself.

"Can we begin the first stages of our project now? This class is boring." she said and he stared at her. Well, he didn't have anything better to do anyway. He could never get less than an A either, that was a no-no.

XXXXX

There was constant work on the genetics project because Mr Yakushi wouldn't accept anything but the best and neither would Sasuke or Hinata. Hinata soon realised that Sasuke was just as much a nerd as people said she was and completely hated losing or even coming second best. If her non-caring attitude progressed it wasn't by much. She had stopped being polite to the other students and had decide that she wasn't going to cut her hair ever again even though her father always wanted her hair to be perfectly shoulder-length and it was due for a cut that weekend. The weekend had passed and gone and it had not been cut. Her father would be pissed when he came back from his business trip.

One more thing she decided that Monday morning while getting ready: she wasn't going to hide her temper. Sasuke said he would help her but he hadn't addressed it yet. She guessed that if he didn't joke to let people know he was ticked she could do the same. That would probably be hard though because while she was getting irritated a lot easier recently (that ran in the family anyway) she still didn't like hurting people's feelings. It was a miracle that the day she decided this she was completely invisible to the world. But of course something had to happen.

She was simply walking out to the parking lot to go with Neji to go to the library downtown. He didn't know her partner was Sasuke yet. She had added another part to the project that would conclude it while he was at football (soccer) practise. Now that it was almost finished she could just go and wait for him to come so all they had to do was perfect it. Then the driver would pick her up from the library. So yea, she was just walking from a classroom to the parking lot when Ino slid around the corner with a smile on her face.

"Hinata Hyuga." she crowed slowly strutting to the shorter girl. Hinata felt a twinge of fear flutter through her as the girl continued her predatory walk. Girls like Ino were dangerous for girls like Hinata. Girls like Hinata were always the prey. For all Hinata knew she could have her crew just around the corner lay waiting her. "What a little twat you are."

Hinata froze her logical, intelligent side kicking in. 'Twat? That's not a word. Did she mean twit?'

"To think that he dated you. How could he manage?" Ino continued brushing her hair over her shoulder. Damn that hair. Ino smirked. "He must have felt sorry for you. You're so unattractive and nerdy."

Hinata knew she was a little nerdy and she knew she didn't have the best looks but did this… thing really come just to taunt her?

'Would she really just go out of her way to make me feel bad?' were her exact thoughts on the presence of Ino.

"I'm surprised he doesn't have your germs all over him. I guess he didn't get too close to you even when you were dating." Ino said and Hinata coloured to a light shade of red in what Ino thought was embarrassment, but Hinata knew was anger. Ino smirked even wider.

'We were very close!' Hinata raged in her mind.

"You see this?" Ino said and made a motion to her body. The body that had guys lining up to date her. "This is the perfect work of art that you will never get. He left you for this and this will be all over him. Your fat will never meet this beauty."

'I am not fat!' was Hinata's indignant thought as Ino walked away swaying her hips wickedly. Anger boiled in Hinata making her almost snap her phone in half when she yanked it out of her pocket.

XX

"Where is Hinata?" Neji voiced when the team stepped out of the school to no one.

"I don't know isn't she working on a project for tomorrow?" Ten-ten asked from beside him. She wasn't on the football team but she was on the track team and was dating Neji. Sasuke raised a brow slightly at hearing this but did not move his attention from what Suigetsu was saying.

"I think she left earlier." Ino said innocently from her place wrapped around Naruto's arm. No one smart (Neji, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Gaara, Kankuro) bought it. Hinata didn't go anywhere without Neji or he at least knew where she was. Sasuke had a project to do with her; she wouldn't just abandon it when it was due the next day. Ino sounded way too innocent for Shikamaru's liking. Gaara and Kankuro considered her a sister since she was so close to their own sister so they knew the girl couldn't just up and go anywhere without someone in the family knowing.

Neji had his cell phone out in a second and was walking like a man on a mission to his car. Gaara and Kankuro were just as serious right behind him to Kankuro's monster of a van. Ten-ten followed along. Hinata was one of the few friends she had and that girl didn't just up and disappear, at all.

"What's with the rush?" Ino whined when even Naruto and Kiba had near panicked looks on their faces.

Sasuke was half way to his own car trying not to look as if he was rushing (he never rushed) when Ten-ten yelled "Wait!"

All heads turned to her as she plucked a paper off Neji's windshield. She read it quickly and sighed relieved. "She's at the library doing her project."

The group relaxed almost instantly. Sasuke continued his walk to his car in true calm. He'd never admit he almost freaked that his recently acquired half-shadow had disappeared. Ok so maybe she was growing on him but that didn't mean he should freak.

XXXXX

"Of all the things to happen today, that little blond..." Hinata was thinking crossly when she was interrupted by Sasuke walking over and saying the obvious.

"It's finished."

She glared up at him. "Of course its fricking finished moron." she snapped causing him to look at her shocked. She slapped a hand over her mouth with wide eyes. "I'm so sorry."

Sasuke relaxed into his usual state and took a seat beside her. "If you don't snap at me how will you snap at others? Don't apologise for being angry. Anger is good."

"Is that supposed to be a lesson?" she asked him lowering her hands to the table.

"Lesson?" he asked.

"You forgot." she stated and he raised a brow at her. She stared at him blankly. 'That explains a lot.'

"Is there a reason why you're looking at me like that?" he asked resting his head on his knuckles with his elbow on the table.

"You forgot you were going to help me to not care." she told him and he seemed to think about it for a moment.

"You can think of it as one but here is the real lesson." he told her and looked at her straight in the face. "No matter how much you don't care there must be something or things you care about or you will have no honour."

"What do you care about?"

"You don't have to know. You must choose for yourself." he told her and she looked away from him as she thought.

"I care about my family and my grades." she said finally.

"Then forget about everything else. Nothing else matters." Sasuke told her and she nodded with a small smile. Sasuke was struck with how innocent she looked. Her eyes were just so open and her face was clear. 'What could have possibly bothered her? … Why did it even bother him?' He rested his head in his hand propped up on the desk again. "What did Ino do to make you leave?"

Hinata's smile faltered and her face took on a look that Sasuke was sure no one had seen on her before, anger. "Do I look fat to you?" Hinata asked after a moment. He took in her baggy clothes down to the little part of her skin that was showing where her pants stopped. Her calves where thin

"Yes but your legs are too thin for you to be."

"Well I'm not."

"That's why you're angry?" he asked disbelievingly. That was such a girly thing to get angry about. To think he had thought she wasn't like those superfluous girls that seemed to be everywhere.

"No. I'm angry because she actually went out of her way to taunt me just because I used to date Naruto and now she is and just because I'm not some pretty girl with a models body!" she growled angrily drawing a line down her paper and completely ruining it. Sasuke watched on with a detached look. That was better.

"Hyuga, you don't have to have a models body to be beautiful." He told her calmly while he inwardly asked: 'Why am I helping her?' She looked away from the paper to him with wide eyes. Advice and compliments weren't something Sasuke usually gave to anyone. "You don't have to be overly pretty or glossy to be beautiful either."

She smiled at him again and this time his heart almost stopped at the sheer earnestness of it and the way her face lit up. "Thanks."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"I've decided to change your seating arrangements." Kakashi Hatake, the English teacher, announced with a smile from behind a brightly coloured scarf that covered the bottom half of his face. The man would wear a scarf every day of the year not to mention his eye patch. It was rumoured that he destroyed his eye in a car accident and the government used him as a test subject to try out a new eye technology that people would kill him to get. It was farfetched but so were the stories he told for being late so anything was believable with him.

"So my first victims of seat switching will be..." Kakashi began deviously. "Kiba switch with Hinata so she'll sit beside Sakura and you can sit beside Shino."

"Oh man." Kiba said for both of them as he grabbed his stuff. Hinata actually liked sitting beside Shino. He was nice smart and fun to talk to when he was talking too, not to mention he knew the most interesting things about bugs. She didn't talk to Sakura except for once when the girl told her to 'shove off' after attempting to ask to borrow an eraser. Another reason she didn't talk to her was because she was like Ino. She was pretty, popular and bitchy. She acted like a princess and frankly she was even rich if Hinata remembered correctly. She used to be nice until Ino took her under her wing. The fact that the seat was in the middle of the class room was one more reason not to want to move.

"Next... Hmm..." Kakashi continued tapping a finger to his covered chin as he surveyed the class with one eye. "Karin, switch with Naruto."

Everyone in the class groaned when Karin immediately jumped from her seat. That would put her right beside Sasuke. Said boy was glaring at Kakashi.

"On second thought, go sit down." Kakashi said still smiling. Karin pouted and sulkily shuffled back to her seat. The class breathe a sigh of relief and even Sasuke's glare calmed. That was until his name was spoken in the same sentence with 'that' name. "Sasuke switch with Sakura."

Sasuke's glare was back full force but he didn't move even as Sakura slowly packed up her stuff. Kakashi looked on with an amused look. He watched as Sakura sauntered to the back of the class, purposefully swaying her hips and Sasuke stared at her blankly. Weren't his student so interesting?

"Any day now?" he commented when Sakura hadn't even reached half-way to her destination. After two more steps Sasuke rolled his eyes got up and brushed past her without a second glance. The girl stumbled in her heels and Kakashi cracked a grin behind his scarf as the rest of the class erupted in giggles. Yup, his brats were interesting. Who wore heels to school where their exes can pretty much break their ankles just by walking past? He knew the answer to that one.

"Well, I've had enough fun for this morning." he said cheerfully but didn't miss the nod of acknowledgement Sasuke gave the Hyuga girl. That boy didn't acknowledge just anyone." Now for the even more fun part: assignments!"

"Aww" "Come on!" Kiba and Naruto vocalised while the rest of the class groaned.

"We're all happy already." Kakashi said earning the glares of more than half the class. "You'll pair up with your desk mates and write me a short story of no less than two thousand words. It must have at least three chapters, no more than four, can include a prologue or epilogue or both, must have a theme and a title and it absolutely must be interesting. It will be marked for interest, grammar, spelling, and use of language techniques. Extra marks for dialectal variation and if I fall in love with your work. Due in SEVEN DAYS!"

"You could have just said a week." Chouji grumbled.

"But then I couldn't get to say SEVEN DAYS! in an eerie tone." Kakashi said and everyone knew he was pouting.

"You should so date Lady Anko." a student near the door grumbled

"You should tell her that. She just seems so hung up on Ibiki."

"You mean the scary guidance counsellor?" another asked and Kakashi nodded.

"With all the scars?" yet another asked and he nodded again.

"I can see why she likes him. He's scary."

"Don't worry sensei we're on your side! There's no telling what their babies would look like."

"Half-human dragons!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Snake headed humans." Kiba suggested darkly.

"Or not even humans at all."

"We're all Team Kakashi here!"

The class erupted in cheers.

"Is this seriously English?" Sasuke commented to himself annoyed but Hinata heard him. She smiled as everyone else had a conversation about the 'love affair'.

"Well literature does include imagination." she commented. He stared at her for a moment before rolling his eyes then sighing. This was going to be a long class.

"Hey! Has anyone realised that the only way he's going to fall in love with our story is if it's porn?"

Hinata hurried out of the class and to her locker. She quickly packed up her books and almost jogged to the cafeteria. It was already full of students. She stood by the doors looking around for them. Where were they? She couldn't see them anywhere. They were supposed to be free today.

'I'm too short.' she thought dejectedly.

"Hey little Bunny, who you waiting for?" a voice said from behind her. She turned to see Temari smiling at her. She gave Hinata a wink. "Why don't you come over to my place?"

"No, thank you." Hinata answered and the girl rolled her eyes.

"More attitude girl, more attitude." Temari told her before throwing her arm around the smaller girl's shoulders. "If you don't put in the right amount of attitude you'll never get away from them."

"Yea." Hinata answered allowing herself to get led to the line. "Where's Ten-ten?"

"She should be here soon, had to hand in an assignment." Temari answered preoccupied with looking for her brothers. That reminded Hinata that she now had two assignments to do with Sasuke otherwise from the one for Biology that was already done. It was like the teachers plotted to put Sasuke and her together for everything. Not that she minded. He wasn't that bad a person.

"You don't mind sitting at any random table, right? The boys are with the team." Temari asked after spotting Gaara and Kankuro at a table with the rest of the football (soccer) team.

"Nope." Hinata smiled.

"Fine. I'll send Ten-ten to help you when she gets here. I'm gonna save us a seat." the blond said and bounced away. Hinata sighed. Ordering the lunch. Oh joy. Before she got to the lunch lady Ten-Ten came to join her. They both chatted about a few things while they collected the lunch and found the seats that Temari had saved for them.

"Hey aren't you supposed to be sitting with your boyfriend?" Temari teased when she saw Ten-Ten. The girl blushed slightly at the mention of Neji. Hinata smiled. They were a fairly new couple and they were two of her favourite people. She was happy for them.

"He knows I have to spend some days with my girls. I'm a very busy person." Ten-Ten told them.

"Does he know that?" Temari asked looking over their shoulders at something behind them. The other two looked back to see Neji making his way over walking gracefully and ignoring any girl stupid enough approach him.

"Hinata, Ten-Ten, Temari." he greeted them when he finally got to the table.

"What's up Chocolate?" Temari asked with a grin.

"Nothing much Temari." he said running a hand through his long dark brown hair to humour her. He then turned his attention to both Ten-Ten and Hinata. "Uncle will be returning this evening, he just texted me."

"Wait hold on. Your old man can text?" Temari asked butting in.

"I just said so." Neji stated while Hinata nodded.

"Wow. Go old man Hyuga!" Temari cheered raising her soda can and totally missing the small glare Neji shot at her. "Butting out now."

"As I was saying," Neji began then turned to Ten-Ten. Hinata took that as her cue to stop paying attention. "I might be late to pick you up for our movie."

"Ok. Just call me when you're coming to pick me up." Ten-ten told him. She understood that whenever Mr Hyuga returned from his business trips he liked to meet with his daughters and Neji for a review of everything that happened while he was gone. She also knew it might take a while.

The rest of the lunch period continued as usual with conversation. That included Temari re-enacting pick-up lines that guys used on her for Hinata to decline. The girl was getting a little better at rejecting all she needed now was attitude. Ten-Ten would laugh at all of them and ask if these things were really lines.

Afterwards they all split up to go to their classes. Since Temari and Ten-Ten were in a year higher than Hinata they went in their own direction and she went in hers. She was half way to her locker when she saw Sasuke leaned on someone else's locker. He was staring right at her. Was that his way of telling her to 'come here'? She sighed and walked over to him. He watched her until she stopped an appropriate distance in front of him then turned his head to look down the hall.

"Will you be able to meet after school?" he asked and Hinata nodded even though he most likely couldn't see the movement.

"I'll have to go home first." she replied thinking about her father returning from his trip. He looked at her from the corners of his eyes.

"I don't have to pick you up do I?" he asked. That would just be too troublesome. 'That sounds like Shikamaru.'

"No. We have drivers and Father will insist on one." she said and let out a small sigh. Such was life in a family like hers. Protection was key. Sasuke knew how it could be and he was glad his dad wasn't that protective or was it that he, Sasuke, just didn't care? Whichever.

"My house." he said handing her a strip of paper with his address. He'd tell his father about it when he got home. His mother would probably be a problem. She'd probably end up cooking and flip out when she realises Hinata is a girl. He sighed mentally. "Later."

Hinata watched him leave. He walked as if he ruled the school even with his hands in his pockets and he always had space where he walk as if his entire aura told people to step aside. He truly was confident in himself. If only she could be like that. She continued watching him until he disappeared before turning to go in the opposite direction for her own class. This was one of the few sessions they didn't have together.

XXXXX

Hinata entered the house behind Neji and Hanabi with an apprehensive feeling. They passed through the front door and into the foyer without anything happening. They may have gotten further if the man they were trying to escape hadn't emerged from the kitchen.

"Good afternoon Uncle." Neji said instantly. It was best to go politely.

"Good afternoon Father." both Hinata and Hanabi said even if Hinata's was just a little relax. Hinata almost stuttered. There was always pressure from her father.

"Greetings." he said looking at all of them in turn. His gaze stopped on Hinata for a little longer than the others and it took all her will power not to look away from him. He spun on his heel and started down the hall. "Let's hurry. It was a long flight."

"Yes sir." Neji said following him. Hinata and Hanabi followed along as well.

"Did you bring anything back for us?" Hanabi asked, ever the brave one. Her father merely glanced at her over his shoulder.

"They're in your rooms." he answered. He entered his office and they stood while he went to sit behind his desk. "How are your studies?"

"They're well." Neji answered.

"I'm doing great." Hanabi put in. Hinata nodded when his eyes fell on her. He frowned.

'Here it comes.'

"Hinata, I noticed you haven't cut your hair." he said and both Neji and Hanabi looked at her. They hadn't even realised. "Why is that?"

It wasn't what she had been expecting but it was better than having to explain to her father why she hadn't spoken in her reply and then be told repeatedly to speak up. She pushed aside her nervousness, well as much of it as she could, before speaking. "I've had short hair for a long time and th-thought that it may be time for a ch-change."

'Curse stuttering!' she mentally screamed when her father's eyes narrowed. It was bad enough once in a sentence but twice was almost a crime.

"Is there anything I should know? Anything else that needs to be discussed?" he asked looking away from her. She sighed silently as the other two gave negatives. "Do you have anything planned for this evening?"

"No Father." Hanabi said instantly. She was allowed to leave.

"There is a movie that I am going to see." Neji and received his nod of approval before leaving.

"I have projects to work on at a friend's house." Hinata said and was prove of a lack of stuttering. Another sentence with it would not be good for her.

"Which friend might that be?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"Uchiha?" he muttered leaning back in his chair. Hinata remained silent. Technically, Sasuke wasn't her friend. They didn't do friend stuff and if she said so in front of him he would most likely put her to shame for even thinking it. "The Uchiha's and I will soon be discussing and agreement regarding a business. Be nice."

'I'm trying to learn not to be nice.' Hinata thought even as she nodded. It wasn't the first time she had been told to be nice. She should have known two huge families like the Uchiha's and the Hyuga's would eventually try to find some sort of business deal that would benefit them both. They were both in big businesses.

"Ask the driver drop you at their house assuming you know the address."

"Yes Father." she answered. He looked at her for a moment before turning away.

"Remember to speak up and do not stutter." he said sternly and Hinata took her leave.

"Are you ok?" Neji asked the minute she closed to door behind her. She nodded. It was as emotionally stressing as it could be.

XXXXX

Sasuke was annoyed. He was very annoyed. His mother was teasing him, his brother was teasing him and his father was silently teasing him. His brother was gone now but his mother was still in the kitchen singing that stupid song. He could hear her from where he sat in the hall. "Sasuke has a friend coming over. Sasuke has a friend coming over. Sasuke has a friend coming over and she's a girl!"

He would admit girls didn't usually come over. They were too crazy and all obsessed with him that they just weren't welcome in his house. The Hyuga was different. She wasn't one of those crazy beasts that seemed to crave him so much. Did he look like cake to them or something? Was he some kind of exquisite chocolate to them?

He looked up but didn't move when his father entered to walk past to his office. He was humming something that sounded strangely like the same thing his mother was singing. Sasuke glared at the man but he merely swatted it away.

"Not strong enough." he said before disappearing into his office. Why his glare never seemed to work on his father could always be put up to his father's glare being ten times scarier than his. Why no glares worked on his mother was another thing entirely. Nothing worked on her, except one eyed puppy eyes. Tobi, his cousin, could get away with anything.

'This is taking a while.' he thought annoyed. He had been sitting there for almost a half hour now. It wasn't that he didn't have anything to do but keeping his mother from opening the door when the Hyuga eventually got there was top priority. Who knew what the woman would say to the Hyuga.

The doorbell chimed and he was out of his seat and at the door in three seconds flat leaving his mother to pout at the door to the kitchen. Victory!

He pulled the door open to reveal the Hyuga standing there with her bag slung over her shoulder. She smiled at him before waving to the sleek black Chrysler still running in the driveway. The vehicle flashed its lights and the girl turned back to Sasuke. He stepped aside to let her pass. He watched the car over her shoulder as she passed him. He couldn't believe they were actually serious about the driver.

"He's leaving." he commented when the car began to slowly back out of the driveway.

"Yea. He'll be back for me at 7/8." the girl said looking from Sasuke to the car. Sasuke closed the door.

"Hang your jacket there." he said making a gesture to the rack by the door as he passed by her. He looked back to see her trying to decide whether to drop the bag or try to remove the jacket without putting it down. He took it from her. He looked down the hall just in case his mother decided to poke her head out of the kitchen.

When he turned back around he froze. She was just pulling her hands out of her sleeves but that not what made him freeze. He'd admit he hadn't given much thought to what might have been under the baggy jacket but whatever he expected hadn't been anything like this. The navy blue shirt wasn't baggy even if it fit her a bit loosely as if it wasn't really her shirt. It however fit perfectly around the swell of her breast. Those looked close to Ds! Wonderfully curved... And she was slim! All those years of thinking she was some fatty trying to hide her fat just pretty much flew out the window. What the hell?

"Sasuke!" his mother shouted from the end of the hall. They both turned to look at her. Hinata was I'm the middle of reaching to hang her jacket. "How mean of you! As the host, you should be the one hanging up the coat not staring at her."

He glared at her before shoving the bag back to the blushing Hyuga and hanging to jacket himself. Way to ruin his slow admiration of her finer physical traits. Damn him for being caught but she didn't have to say it. Oh but she did, she was after all his one and only very loving mother that was just bent on making his life better while she had fun. To hell with his cool demeanour and Uchiha pride for all she cared.

"Aww. You have the same eyes as Neji." his mother continued approaching them. Sasuke was on the verge of growling. This woman was out to embarrass him, he just knew it. "But you're so much cuter. Isn't that right Sasuke?"

'Knew it.' he thought before looking at the poor girl. Her face was entirely red now. Instead of saying anything to condemn him to his actual thoughts of 'yes, kind of, in a delicate, way.' he settled for a "Hn." of indifference and turned away. "I'm going to my room. When you're done with her, send her up."

Hinata watched him leave in shock. 'Did he just dump me on his mother?'

"He can be such a pest." the woman beside her sighed shaking her head at her son's behaviour. She smiled at Hinata. "I'm Mikoto by the way. I'm the mother of that little jerk. Want some cookies? Have I told you you're cute? Who would have thought my little Sasuke had such fabulous friends. Cool and hunky boys and a super cute girl."

Hinata could only smile at all the woman was saying. She talked fast and in such an excited tone that her speech was jumbled. Hinata wasn't sure she heard half of it properly.

"Oh poor girl. I'm just too excited to speak properly." she said noticing the girl's confused look. "Cookies?"

"Thank you but I should probably hurry up to Sasuke." Hinata said politely.

"You don't have to bother with him, that's my job. Come have a cookie." Mikoto insisted looping her arm through Hinata's and beginning to pull her towards the kitchen. Hinata sent a worried look up the stairs as she allowed herself to be pulled along.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It was official for Hinata, seeing Naruto with Ino hurt. At first she had tried to push it away but she just couldn't. It didn't help that she had biology with both of them. They were always huddled together talking and, for all she knew, sneaking kisses. It wasn't so painful as it was disgusting because they kept doing it but the pain was still very much there. She looked away from the blonde duo and back to Mr Yakushi when he stood before the class.

"I'll be ending class here for today since I have some important business to take care off." he said and no one noticed his eyes hover on Sasuke for a moment longer than the others. "I expect you to be on your best behaviour or at least as good as it gets."

The noise level quickly picked up even before he slipped through the door. Hinata's eyes drifted back to her blond ex and she immediately regretted it. It was sickening. It was as if they forgot they were actually in a classroom... with other people. Kiba and a few others were doing the honours of cheer them on. She turned away from them in time to see Sasuke cross his arms with a look of detachment.

He raised a brow at her. Her face was green and she didn't look well. Before her could make a comment on it, a well-manicured pink nail-polished hand that looked disturbingly familiar placed itself flatly onto his desk. He looked up, against his better judgement. He could feel the twitch building up in his left eye. How he could have dated her was still a mystery he had to ponder.

"What?"

"So hostile Sasuke." the pink haired girl said brushing her hair away from her face. She gave him an alluring smile that made him hide a grimace. He only faintly noticed Hinata leave in a rush.

Sasuke leaned back in his seat and away from her. Sakura took that as an invitation to sit on his desk. She crossed her legs allowing her already short skirt to rise a little higher. He kept his eyes trained on her face even though with the all-seeing Uchiha eyes he could still see the colour of her panties. Curse the damned things! He didn't need to know what was down there!

"How are you?" she asked and he frowned at the question. That wasn't something Sakura cared about. "How are you missing me?"

That sounded more like it.

"If you mean how good I feel, then I'm feeling better than I have in a long time."

"I doubt it feels as good as it did when we were together. I bet I could make you feel even better." she said leaning forward to give him a peek at her already out there cleavage. He didn't move but kept his gaze on her face. Disinterest was written all over his face. "Sucks for you. You dumped me."

"I know. That's old news. Get off my desk."

"You'll miss me Sasuke. It's already seeping in." she said attempting to run a finger against his jawline but he caught her hand before it could touch him and squeezed. She hissed both from the pressure and the icy glare he sent her. She pulled her hand away to cradle it. With a huff, she was gone and the bell signalled the end.

XX

Hinata still felt sick. She had gone straight to the bathroom when she got up. It was luck that she hadn't actually thrown up. She had felt the urge but it had gone away when she locked herself into the bathroom stall. Now she was just trying to calm herself down and stop recalling the scene that caused it all. The bell had rung for lunch only a few seconds before so she was just trying to get herself together completely before going out. Temari and Ten-ten would realise something wasn't right instantly and Temari would be hell-bent on destroying whoever caused it.

She was just about to pick up her bag and leave when the door to the bathroom banged open. She froze at the loud noise in the previously silent bathroom and the chatter of familiar voices reached her ears.

"I didn't think it would take this long." she didn't quite get who it was but it was someone she knew.

"It's only been one week, he'll come around." that voice she recognised.

'Ino' Hinata thought darkly, starting to feel sick all over again.

"But I miss him so much. My precious Sasuke, did I do something wrong?" Sakura, she concluded, asked in a weepy tone. These were two people Hinata did not want to see at the moment.

"No way. He dumped you for no reason." Ino said comforting the girl. "Soon he'll realise that he's made a horrible and then he'll be begging for you to take him back. He'll realise just what he lost and come running back to you because you will set his heart on fire for you. That cold freezer will be yours."

Hinata rolled her eyes. 'Sasuke's cold freezer will forever remain his.'

"You think so?" Sakura asked on the verge of tears.

"I know so." Ino prompted. "Now fix your face. You have a point to prove and show that cold bastard what he's missing."

"By this time next week I'll have him back and wrapped around my finger." Sakura said cheering up. "We belong together."

'Ambitious.' Hinata thought and continued to absently listen to Sakura and Ino plot how to win Sasuke's heart over. As far and Hinata was concerned they were doomed to fail. Sasuke would not be fooled by them. Once he hated someone nothing could change his mind. If only she could stand that strongly. If there was anything she admired about Sasuke it was his conviction and confidence. Those were two things she needed that she lacked.

Soon enough she was left alone in the bathroom once again. She quickly grabbed her things and got out. She was almost at the cafeteria when she was suddenly hugged from behind by someone almost a head taller than her.

"We were just about to hunt the whole school for you." the blond asked spinning her around roughly. "Where were you?"

"B-bathroom."

"Are you ok? Are you sick?" Temari asked shaking her.

"If she wasn't sick she'd be sick now." Ten-ten said pulling Hinata away from her. "You ok?"

"Yea. Wasn't feeling well earlier but I'm better now."

They both looked at her worriedly until Ten-ten asked: "Want to talk about it?"

"...Maybe later." Hinata told them and they left it at that.

"Anyway, guess what?" Ten-ten said as both she and Temari threw their arms around Hinata. The girl smiled at their suddenly happy attitude and began to walk with them the rest of the way to the cafeteria.

"What?" Hinata asked indulgently.

"I'm on the official team for the track competition next month!" the brunette announced.

"That's great!" Hinata congratulated.

"Awesome!" Temari added.

"Yea and Neji is taking me somewhere special this evening to celebrate!" Ten-ten told them.

"Wow. That's good for you." Hinata said as they reached their destination and entered the noisy room. She was genuinely happy for Ten-ten.

"Yea but he won't tell me where and we're going out early because it's going to be for a long time." Ten-ten sighed dejectedly. They were already in the line and waiting for their turn.

"Oh well, just enjoy it. It's bound to be something good if he's going through that much trouble." Temari said examining her nails. Hinata smiled in agreement. She could see Sakura and Ino across the cafeteria from between her two friends. Sakura kept stealing glances to a few tables over where Sasuke sat with a few friends from his team including Neji and Naruto. She almost felt sympathy for the girl. She probably would have been like that if she had deluded herself instead of trying to change herself for the better she hoped. The sympathy didn't actually manifest however. Sakura and her friends could be vicious, especially Ino. The Sakura-Ino combo was the place to go for a good downgrading. They weren't alone of course but Karin was nothing more than a lackey to them. The girl hung on every word they said almost as much as she hung on everything related to Sasuke. The guy had some weird followers. The others weren't even important to spare a glance unless dealing them a mental or emotional blow. It was sad.

Hinata was so deep in thought she almost missed the feeling of eyes on her. She only had to turn her gaze a little to find the source, Sasuke Uchiha. His gaze didn't shift even if he realised she was looking at him now. If anything it seemed like he was scrutinising her, as if trying to figure out something. When his finally met her they were unwavering and Hinata almost felt like taking a step back from the sheer intensity. She almost saw it as a glare except for the slight raise on an eyebrow when his usual glares had both brows furrowed. She couldn't even feel any hostile vibe from him. She offered him a weak and nervous smile despite his piercing look. Sasuke's eyes glided back to Naruto and just like that he was done with her.

Hinata turned her eyes back to her friends after the little event with Sasuke. They hadn't even realised her little lapse in attention. It was for the best because for the life of her, she couldn't guess why he was staring at her in the First place.

XXXXX

"How do you like the fudge cakes dear?" Mikoto asked kindly as she prepared the chicken for the oven. Hinata smiled behind the mass of chocolaty goodness.

"They're very nice, Mrs Uchiha."

"Please Hinata, it's Mikoto." the lady laughed.

"Right." Hinata replied quietly. "Do you think Sasuke is done yet?"

"Nope, he takes a while after school especially after coming from practice." Mikoto told her and Hinata nodded idly and continued her fudge cake.

"Neji does the same thing." she commented and Mikoto smiled at her. She actually liked the girl.

Hinata looked away from her food when she saw a tall figure enter the room. He was looked a lot like Sasuke but a lot different as well. While they both had the same black hair and pale skin, this guy's skin was a shade or two darker, his eyes had a red tint, his hair was longer and pulled into a pony tail, and he had two deep frown lines marring his face. "Hey mom," He said before seeing the small girl around the kitchen counter. He smiled at her. "Hello there, are you Sasuke's friend?"

"Sort of." she answered politely resting her fudge cake on her plate. Mikoto ignored them in favour of attending to her chicken.

"Sort of?" Itachi asked before sitting on one of the stools beside Hinata. "Well he said his 'friend' would be coming over. I would guess that's you. I'm Itachi, Sasuke's brother."

"Hinata." she answered shaking his hand. He gave her a small smile before stealing her fudge cake from her plate. She stared frozen as he savoured every bite of her fudge cake in a type of seduction that just wasn't present in many high school boys. Itachi was classy... "And he stole my delicious fudge cake."

"Excuse me?" Itachi asked wiping his mouth with a napkin from the counter.

"I was going to eat that." she said pointing at the last piece of fudge cake in his hand. He tilted his head while looking at her.

"You should have said so sooner." he said popping the piece into his mouth while watching her. She gaped at him and he shot her smile before turning to his mother. "You fudge cakes are always the best Mom."

"Thank you hunny." Mikoto said happily and continued her work on the chicken.

"Don't look at me like that. You can have my cake." he said picking another one from the pile on the counter and placing it into her plate. She looked from him to the cake. "It's not going to bite you."

"Thanks...?" she said uncertainly but pulled it closer to her anyway.

"You are adorable." he said and watched her face flush red. "Eat up. Do you do any type of sport?"

"Uh..." Hinata began.

XXXXX

Sasuke emerged from the bathroom still considering everything that had gone through in practise. The team prided itself on coordination and cooperation. Those relied on trust in the team. Sasuke knew he could trust Suigetsu to pass the ball to him at the right time on the field but he was more likely to believe what a rock told him than anything that came from Suigetsu's mouth. He could trust all of the team on the field it was off that he didn't. There were only few he would trust and those were Naruto and Neji. Naruto, because he knew the kid for most of his life and could trust him to be by his side even if he didn't want him to be. Neji, because he was more practical and more likely to not mess things up. Plus he didn't have a big mouth and had been kind enough to let Sasuke sneak into his room and stay over the night when his father kicked out for ending up in the police station the first time. It hadn't been his fault really.

If there was one other thing the team was known for it was always keeping possession of the ball for the majority of any game. The ball was theirs. That had something to do with Shikamaru being the goalkeeper and he insistence that the ball should come nowhere near him.

Sasuke paused in his thoughts halfway down the stairs when he heard soft laughing and the tell-tale sounds of a male voice. It was too light to be his father and his father didn't make people laugh. He walked silently down the stairs until he was able to see into the kitchen. Lo and behold there was his dear brother, the very bane of his existence; talking to the very person he had business (assignment) to discuss with. Whatever they were talking about must have been amusing because Hinata wouldn't stop smiling and he could hear his mother's laughing in there as well. She was out of his view but she could still be heard.

It was irritating. Unsoundly irritating.

Before either of them could even guess at his presence he was already back up the stairs and in his room. Just the sight of her smiling so easily with his brother. She never spoke or smiled like that with anyone especially not with him. She was a silent unassuming and people shy person. She didn't willingly talk to anyone! Oh but no his brother had to be the one to get her to be totally different than she usually was. He had to be the one to get her to be so open and lively. He was angry but no that was all. He was something else too. He was something he hadn't been in a long time. It was something that he couldn't quite put a finger on. Could it be? No, it could never... It couldn't possibly be-

"Sasuke, you're ready." the Hyuga asked from the door effective bringing Sasuke back to the present. He frowned on noticing that he was standing at the desk in his room with his back to the door and he had his lighter in his hands. He glared at the empty lighter he had gotten from his grandfather on one of his earlier birthdays when the man was still alive, before dropping it back in the drawer he had taken it from and slamming it shut. He wouldn't be able to tell you when he had pulled it out to begin with.

"Is something wrong?" she asked at the lack of response.

"You should know to just come up stairs." he said darkly moving

"You were bathing." she said timidly stepping towards him

"Point?" he asked giving her an icy glare. She remained silent and just took a seat on the bed beside him. They sent out the books and got to work neither of them breaking the silence. They were a good way through their work when Sasuke voiced something that had been muffling at him fir sometime.

"So, what happened to you in class today?" Sasuke asked and Hinata looked at him cluelessly for a moment trying to figure out what he meant. Her eyes widened when she realised he meant how she had left their biology class in such a rush.

"Does it matter?" she asked not looking away from him even as his dark eyes bore into her.

"Just curious." he answered turning away and picking up a book to hide a slight blush. He didn't even know why he wanted to know. First he had been worried at lunch, then he had been jealous of her talking so easily with his brother and now he wanted to know something that wasn't even his business. You could add 'confused about himself' to the list. Today was just mixed up. He was feeling way too many things he didn't usually feel and it was because of this short, skinny, sort of pretty Hyuga g- 'Pretty? Am I serious?' Sasuke mentally slapped himself.

"Sasuke?" The girl's concerned voice filtered into his head. He looked over and saw her looking at him. "You were glaring at the book for a looong time, very harshly."

He was quiet for a moment before dropping the book onto the bed space before him. "Whatever. Let's just get this over with."

Hinata smiled at him. "Yea."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

He was angry. Kabuto had been an ass with his snide remarks and his petty jealousy. Then there was Karin. Karin would not leave him alone. She was constantly trying to get his attention and it annoyed him more than anything else. He especially hated how she would always say 'isn't that right Sasuke?' while she twirled the neat part of her hair in her fingers and batted her eyelashes at him. He chose to ignore her most times but there was a limit to how much a person can ignore especially when Suigetsu was being just as annoying. Then there were the other idiots that thought it would be great time to stop by. Let's not forget the boss himself. The only person he could actually tolerate for the half hour had been Juugo. He was thankful that Juugo was actually a quite person. Sasuke wasn't even sure he could manage being near Hinata. He was very near to avoiding all human contact at this point.

However, his grades were very important to take him where he wanted to go. You had to be smart to actually take over a company as vast as the Uchiha's. Itachi's right to the company had been revoked when Fugaku found out he was in Akatsuki, a 'street gang full of lowlifes' as Fugaku had been inclined to think before meeting the 'thugs' incorporated in it. Sasuke's right could not be revoked because then the company would have to be passed to one of their cousin Tobi who isn't really a good choice either and he was also a part of Akatsuki. If he was revoked as well then the company would have to go to someone outside of the family and Fugaku would not allow that. The current plans for the inheritance were either for Sasuke to take it or for co-leadership by both Itachi and Sasuke. Fugaku was realising every day that Itachi had a more level head than Sasuke and was the better leader. Also, if he revoked Itachi for gang involvement he'd have to do the same to Sasuke, which he couldn't, so he'd have to half-reinstate Itachi.

Back on topic, Sasuke almost slammed the front door on entering. He grunted what could just barely pass for a greeting to his mother before heading directly to his room. He paused only momentarily in the doorway when he saw the Hyuga girl bent over a book on the floor by the foot of his bed. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor with the book resting on her legs. Her lengthening was like a veil hiding her face away with her head bent like that. She looked up when he entered only long enough to give him a small smile before returning to the book. He threw his bag down by his desk before moving to get rid of his shoes and put them into the closet.

"I was thinking about what we were going to build then I got to thinking about the different structures possible." Hinata said as he continued about his business. "I thought about which would be easier, which would get us better marks if we pulled it off properly. That's what I'm examining now. I'm also studying so excuse me if I miss some stuff."

Sasuke ignored her as he continued to loathe everything about the past hour or so. Now he had things to do later that he hadn't planned to do before. He sat in the chair at the desk and moodily stared out the window. Hinata took in his posture before addressing him again. He had a thoughtfully but angry glare directed at the tree outside. Just by watching him she realised that he was preoccupied because he hadn't noticed her.

"Is something wrong, Sasuke?" she asked bringing his attention to her. His gaze found hers and his eyes looked darker than before even with the slight red tint hovering around the edges of his irises. From what Hinata knew it was a trait of the Uchiha's that appeared when under extreme emotion or most usually and easily anger. It was almost the same in Hyuga's except that instead of a seeming change in colour, there seemed to be a rise in blood pressure that resulted in raised veins near the eyes. It scared persons easily. People were very generally creped out by seemingly blind people having perfectly normal or above par vision anyway. They were also a scare tactic the football (soccer) team employed in some matches, both Sasuke and Neji were proficient in the use of their 'angry eyes'.

"Nothing you should concern yourself with." he answered and watched as she held his gaze for a moment longer then return to her book before turning back to the window. "It's not something for innocent little girls."

She was silent as she thought of what could be bothering him, even as she continued reading.

"I already know about Hebi." Hinata said not moving her eyes from her book as if what she said was no big deal. Sasuke's attention snapped to her immediately.

"Hebi? What do you know about Hebi?" he asked tightening his hands into fist.

"Not much really. It's a gang for sure. You're in it. Suigetsu is in it too." she answered without a care. Sasuke froze. No one was supposed to know about that.

"How do you know that?" he asked turning the chair to face her. She was busy reading and didn't acknowledge his change view.

"When you're as invisible as I am at school, you hear a lot of things." Hinata said waving it off.

"Then you know I shouldn't be messed with." Sasuke said lowly and Hinata finally looked up at him.

"Of course. Whether or not you're in Hebi you are not someone who takes kindly to being baited." she told him in all honesty. He searched her face for a moment.

"What else do you know about Hebi?" he asked. If she knew that much who's to tell what else she knew.

"Not much. Your boss is some guy name Orochi-something-"

"Orochimaru." he corrected.

"Ok. I think Juugo might be in it too. You guys aren't quite innocent either, stealing, armed robbery, turf wars with Akatsuki-" she continued.

"What do you know about Akatsuki?" Sasuke interrupted again.

Hinata frowned as she tried to remember from the little scraps of conversations she overheard: "They're another gang, usually referred to as a criminal organisation because of how clean and organised they are. Usually respected and feared."

"Anything else?"

"Their colours are black and red with a red cloud as their insignia."

"That's it?" he asked.

"There are about ten of them." she added and Sasuke couldn't help wonder if that was really all.

"So you know that Itachi is one of them?" Sasuke stated and she nodded. "And Kisame that you seem to have so much fun around?"

"I figured. Are you done now?" she asked with a frown. She was tired of all the questions. When she received no answer she turned her attention to her book.

Sasuke was wondering how someone like Hinata could stand knowing such things and not report it. She didn't seem like the type to keep the knowledge or not let it affect her interactions with the persons. Maybe she was really serious about not caring about anything. That explained why she seemingly didn't care about all this gang business. 'What exactly do I know about her other than her family relations? What do I know about her?'

"Your nickname is Bunny." he stated suddenly. Hinata looked up at him confused.

"Yes?" she said and hesitantly took the hand held to her. He pulled her up from the ground easily as she stood as well.

"Come." he ordered pulling her by the hand. She followed him from his room and down across the hall into another room, without saying anything. Hinata could only guess this was Itachi's room from the colour scheme and the black coat covered in red clouds on the bed. The room actually had air conditioning as well. Sasuke pulled her over to the open closet and onto the ground with him. He let go of her hand to open a large trunk in there.

"Itachi's Trunk of Wonders." he explained as he rummaged through it.

"Trunk of Wonders?" Hinata asked watching as he continued to dig through the huge black trunk.

"Itachi's Trunk of Wonders." he corrected still rummaging. Soon he found two of what he was looking for and one of then soon found itself perched on Hinata's head. He looked at her critically for a moment as she looks up at him questioningly.

"You actually do look like a bunny." he commented and a small smile graced his face when her cheeks coloured to a cute shade of red. The white pair of bunny ears were a good contrast to her dark hair and the red blush just made her even cuter. 'I did not just think that... Crap...'

Before he realised what was happening the black pair of ears in his hands were snatched away from him and placed onto his head. He looked down at the girl that dared to put the ears on him. She was giggling. She was actually giggling at him. He could feel his pale skin colouring already.

"You're a cute Mr Bunny too." she said still giggling.

"I never said you were cute." he said but he couldn't help the smile her giggling brought. Her face was completely red now from all the giggling.

"It was implied." she told him trying her best to calm down.

"Well what do we have here?" a voice asked from the doorway. The two looked over to see Itachi smirking and a grinning Kisame just behind him. "It seems that two rabbits have invaded my room."

"What's up doc?" Kisame said imitating Bugs Bunny with a grin.

"No breeding in here. I don't want a furry invasion." Itachi warned playfully. Hinata was completely red by now while Sasuke glared at him.

"Shut up." Sasuke growled ripping the ears off their heads and throwing them back into the trunk. Kisame erupted in laughter as he watched Sasuke pull the blushing Hinata up and pull her along behind him. Itachi sent a smile after them as he picked his coat off his bed.

"It's almost too cute." Itachi commented moving to his closet to draw it closed.

"Who would have thought?" Kisame grinned as he waited for Itachi to leave.

The door to Sasuke's room slammed shut behind Hinata and Sasuke leaned against it listening for sounds of movement beyond the door. When Itachi and Kisame were gone he turned back to see Hinata sitting on the floor again but was merely staring at the floor still blushing madly.

"What else do you know from being invisible?" Sasuke asked to channel her attention elsewhere. She looked over at him as he came to sit beside her and pulled her book from earlier from off the bed.

"A lot of things I guess. Kiba was the one to clog the teacher's bathrooms last week. That's where Iruka-sensei's notes went." she supplied and Sasuke nodded. He had thought it would have been either Kiba or Naruto anyway. "Sometimes I hear things in the girl's bathroom too and I think... Sakura really loves you."

Sasuke frowned resting his head onto the edge of the bed. He stared up at the ceiling. "Sakura is delusional."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

In all fairness, Hinata loved her father but she also loved when he wasn't home. When he wasn't home there didn't have to be any of those painful meetings after school where he was always watching her for mistakes. That was one of the reasons she was happy that evening, her father was out on business. The others were that her projects were almost done and she was certain she passed her test that morning with flying colours. She was happy and walking out to the parking lot to meet Neji until it happened. Ino stepped around the corner. It was like déjà vu. Hinata froze as Ino approached with a predatory smile across her face.

"Oh look! It's a hobbit!" she exclaimed raising a hand to her mouth. "Oh my bad it's only Hinata, the little nerd at the back of the class. If you want to be a hobbit so bad you should just grow some more hair or you can borrow some from the hair factory."

Hinata could feel the irritation of Ino's purposeful attacks seeping in quickly. She knew Ino went out of her way to do this. Ino could be on the feel taking in the sights of the football team practicing or standing by the locker rooms to great her boyfriend when he came out. She didn't have to be anywhere near Hinata. Ino, however, thrived on destroying other people's self-esteem with well-placed psychological jabs hidden behind petty school bullying. Personally, she had nothing against Hinata but when you saw a chance you seize it. You didn't stay the top girl in the school by being nice. You stayed there by being vicious. Being pretty was just another thing to be manipulated but Ino also prided herself in it.

"But then, even hobbits wouldn't want you." Ino prodded stopping before Hinata then proceeding to examine her as she walked slowly around the girl. "I mean," she leaned into Hinata's ear, "Naruto didn't."

Hinata went rigid. Why? Why couldn't Ino just leave her alone? 'Why can't she leave Naruto out of this?'

"To be truthful, I doubt anyone wants you." Ino continued moving to stand before Hinata again. "I bet Neji only cares because your dad says so."

Hinata knew it wasn't true. It might have been before but that was years ago.

"You're just so socially stunted its funny." Ino laughed gently tipping Hinata's folder out of her arms. It fell to the ground with a dull slap and Hinata looked down at it. She could always pick it up but she wouldn't give Ino the satisfaction of watching her do it or even the leverage it would give her to grab her hair or anything else. Bending was the equivalent of turning your back or running away. Instead she raised her head and stared over Ino's shoulder. Showing her true anger would only satisfy Ino as well.

"You're such a sad case. It's like charity for those two 'friends' of yours. You are the rich one but you're receiving the charity of friendship from those two. Temari could be the princess of her entire grade with Ten-ten as her second."

'When will she leave?' Hinata mentally screamed. Temari didn't want to be anything like Ino and neither did Ten-ten.

"But they're stuck trying to be friends with you." Ino said pushing Hinata in the shoulder. Hinata glared at her in return. "Such a waste."

Hinata continued to glare as Ino spun on her heels and she just barely avoided the fan of glossy blond hair out to slap her in the face. Damn that hair! Ino then proceeded to model her way down the hall.

XX

"No ideas about tomorrow yet?" Sasuke asked Neji as the team walked through the school to the parking lot.

"No. If I don't find something by tomorrow morning be ready to go with either Naruto's or Chouji's idea." Neji answered. It was Friday and every two Saturdays the team went out together. This Saturday was Neji's turn to pick the place.

"Neither of those ideas is good. We'll either be stuck eating ramen and paying for Naruto's extras or eating barbecue and paying for Chouji's extras." Sasuke commented with a frown. Neji shrugged.

"I was studying so I forgot to think of somewhere." he said watching as a paper plane flew over his head to hit the back of Gaara's head. The red head spun around with a glare just as Naruto zipped past them to throw an arm around him happily distracting from vengeance. "I'll text you the place if I find one"

"Sure." Sasuke sighed. If Neji didn't find a place Sasuke could imagine the horror of tomorrow.

They were walking past one of the halls when something caught Sasuke's eyes. He looked over to see Ino shove Hinata and walk away.

'Again?' he thought and inwardly sighed. Even from behind, Hinata seemed livid. Luckily, he was the only one that even noticed anyone even being there. There group continued on their way merrily unaware.

Upon reaching the parking lot, Sasuke stuck around just long enough to say goodbye to Naruto, avoid the bubbly Ino that clung to Naruto, pass Neji and Ten-ten and see Hinata step out of the school building. Practise had stared later than usual so had ended later than usual and he had things to do. Seeing that Hinata seemed alright he left. If Ino sought to make this a constant thing he'd be angry. Did the girl not have anything to do with her free time? It spoke volumes of why her grades barely made it pass the 50 line.

When he got home, he was just about to head up stairs for a much needed bath when the Hyuga chauffeur driven car pulled up in the driveway. He was surprised she got there so quickly. Usually he had almost another hour. He was the one to open the door to let her in and unlike what he had thought earlier she was positively mad.

It had been already twenty minutes into their work and Hinata hadn't said anything yet. She just kept glaring at her work. Usually she at least tried to get him to say a word or two. Finally, Sasuke couldn't take it anymore. It wasn't like her.

"You." he said pulling her up with him and shocking her out of her thoughts. "You're coming with me."

"What? Where?" she asked confused as he pulled her along behind him out the door and down the stairs. "Why?"

"Your mopping is annoying the hell out of me. We're going out." he answered and brought her into the garage. He had grabbed her jacket while passing through the hall and now passed it to her. It didn't occur to him to let go of her hand until he stopped them both at their destination just along the wall of the door.

"Aren't we going to your car?" Hinata asked as she looked around at the large garage and put on her jacket. It was almost as big as the one at her home but that one was made to hold the chauffeur driven cars as well as family cars. The Uchiha's didn't use chauffeurs. Sasuke's car was two cars down and Itachi's huge, shiny black Hummer was just beside it. It was a beauty, even if she wasn't too much of a Hummer fan.

"No, we are going on this." Sasuke answered and Hinata turned to look at him. Her jaw dropped when she saw the blue Kawasaki Ninja. Sasuke thrust a helmet into her hands quickly before looking at her expectantly. "I'll give you the black one if it makes you feel any better."

"I-I can't go on that." she finally spoke. Sasuke rolled his eyes before stepping forward and putting the helmet on her head for her.

"Nothing is going to happen." he assured her as he worked at the helmet. He looked her in the eyes when he was finished. "You'll be fine."

Hinata didn't say anything; she was paralysed in fear, even as Sasuke led her over to the bike and got on. He held a hand to her to help her get on.

"Hinata get on. I'm holding the bike. It's not going to topple over." he prompted. She gave it one more doubtful look before taking his hand and climbing on behind him. She sat still while he put his own helmet on. She jerked and grabbed onto his shoulders the minute he shifted the bike and started it. Sasuke rolled his eyes slightly at the little squeak that left her. He took her hands pulling her closer to him and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"You need to hold on properly." he told her, throwing her a smirk over his shoulder. Her face instantly coloured red. He inwardly chuckled; it was like a cherry, or a tomato. He opened the garage door with the remote control on his keys. "Ready?"

"Y-y-yea." she mumbled and Sasuke almost sighed as he they moved forward at a safe speed. This trip was going to be a relatively slow one while got her used to the feel of being on a bike.

'Imagine if I wasn't wearing a helmet.' he thought dejectedly.

XXXXX

Hinata looked around at the oddly deserted diner. It was a Friday and there was barely anyone in the place that wasn't staff. She would admit that it was her first time being on this side of Konoha and frankly her impression of it was one of almost complete emptiness. It was to be expected though as it was on the outskirts of Konoha and not near one of the more popular roads either. The only reason she wasn't completely freaked by the desolateness of the area was because Sasuke was there pulling her along and ignoring everything around him as if it was natural. Why Sasuke even knew a place like this was a question in its own.

She allowed herself to be lead to a seat by Sasuke. She realised that he did that a lot, pulled her along. He seemed to do it whenever he wanted her somewhere. It was as if he did it to ensure she moved with him. To her it seemed that he just wasn't patient enough to let her follow at her own pace or he just like pulling her. But she knew that the last one was definitely not it because that would imply that he liked to touch her and in her head Sasuke Uchiha would not like to touch a recluse such as herself. It was one of those unspoken rules. Cool guys did not like uncool girls. It was almost a high school taboo, something that could only be achieved in movies or books and even then the 'uncool' girl turns out to be some princess or cool girl pretending to be uncool. In other words it was a fairy tale as far as Hinata was concerned. Just like her relationship with Naruto. It was great while it lasted. It was a sad reality.

Noticing that Hinata wasn't with him, Sasuke ordered for both of them. While he did this, he ignored any attempt at flirting by the young waitress that was probably working to help pay her college fees. When the waitress was gone he watched Hinata stare out the window at nothing before shaking her back to the present.

"I'm sorry." she apologised for her small lapse in attention to ponder the wonders of high school romance.

"Want to tell me what Ino said that you just won't get over?" he asked looking directly at her. He looked away after seeing her shocked expression. "I saw both of you."

"It was mostly about me not being wanted." Hinata told him. The thought of what Ino said earlier brought back the anger she had felt with it. "That people like Neji, my friends and Naruto not wanting me. What is her problem? I mean, she has Naruto already what the hell does she want from me?"

"That is Ino's way of prospering." Sasuke told her not at all surprised at Ino's antics. "Frankly, I don't think their relationship will last."

"Why?" Hinata asked just as the waitress returned with their orders.

"It's doomed to fail." he answered ignoring the waitress's efforts before she left again.

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked, intrigued by the dark prediction of his best friend's relationship.

Sasuke was silent for a moment of thought as he picked around his sandwich, contemplating weather to tell her. "Naruto is... messed up. More like confused really."

Hinata rose a brow in confusion as she picked up her own sandwich but waited for him to continue.

"Naruto believes that he is in love with Sakura. He has for a very long time." Sasuke stated and now Hinata lowered her sandwich. "It happened a long time ago and the story behind it not important right now. The important part is that after some time he decided to stop trying."

"That doesn't explain why he's confused."

"Anyway, after he stopped trying he started dating out girls. The problem is he confuses like with love. For instance something happens, you do something he likes or thinks is appealing and suddenly he's in 'love'." Sasuke explained before taking a huge chunk out of his sandwich. "He easily relates attraction to love or some extreme like. Whoever it is the centre of his attention until it happens again with someone else. That's what happened with you. He probably got hooked by Ino's looks. That's why it's doomed to end, he doesn't really like her and they are not a compatible couple."

Hinata was silent as she took in Sasuke's explanation. It wasn't what she had expected but it would explain a few things like why he was suddenly interested in her and why he could just be with Ino so easily after breaking up with her. It broke her heart all over again.

"He never liked me to begin with." she mumbled

"He likes you, he just didn't LIKE you." Sasuke told her in an attempt to relieve some of the depression seeping in. If she started crying, like girls seemed to like doing, he didn't know what he would do. "He felt really bad after breaking up with you because you looked very pale and scary afterwards and he half expected you to attack him."

"I wouldn't do that." Hinata said with a frown. Did he really thing that? Sasuke shrugged.

"He claimed you looked scary." Sasuke told her and she merely shrugged as well and bit into her own sandwich. He was relieved she hadn't broken down and instead turned quiet. He quickly finished his sandwich and chose to watch outside rather than watch Hinata chew slowly.

"What about you and Sakura?" the girl asked suddenly. He raised a brow at her in surprise. "You were dating right? Why did you break up and she seems so... into you?"

"A series of things." Sasuke looked at her for a moment before turning his attention back out the window. Hinata had just come to the conclusion that it wasn't something he wanted to talk more about when he spoke. "She changed. She wasn't like she is now when we started dating. She was smart had her goal, a good head on her shoulders considerate and some other stuff that I liked about her. She was a little annoying sometimes but it was ok."

Hinata remained silent. This was probably the first time Sasuke told anyone this kind of stuff. She was probably witnessing history! It was at this point that Sasuke turned his gaze back onto her.

"In the second term she started getting a little snappy but it was over the Easter break that everything changed." he told her and Hinata bit into her sandwich intrigued. It was almost like a horror story being told to her. "She went on vacation with Ino for about a week and when she came back her clothes had shrunk and she was suddenly some princess. Her whole style had changed. Her attitude just kept getting bitchier every day. That was about the time she started using my name to get out of buying things like charging entire shopping sprees to the Uchiha account. It wasn't such a big deal at first but then she tried to purchase a car, in my name, for her boyfriend from some school on the other side of the country."

"She was cheating on you?" Hinata asked surprised even as she bit into her sandwich wide eyed. "Two-timing?"

"Yes and no." Sasuke answered turned a dark glare onto his empty plate while his voice remained a deceitful calm. "She also had a college boyfriend that was banging her in the weekends."

Now Hinata nearly choked. "She was sexually active?"

"That's what banging implies." he answered in that same calm tone. Hinata stared at him wide eyed. This entire thing was bad.

"Do you have any proof?"

"Practise ended early one Friday, caught them both in his car in the school drive-way." he said in such a detached tone, as if it hadn't been him but Hinata could feel the loathing underneath. "She knows the reasons why I dumped her. Now you understand when I say she's delusional when you say she loves me."

It made sense as to why Sasuke seemed to hate being around Sakura now if the other day in Biology class was anything to go by. "How long were you dating?"

He shrugged. "A year in November."

"That's almost eleven months." Hinata commented in awe. Her relationship with Naruto hadn't lasted for half of that.

"Its minutes to 8. I should take you back now before they come to pick you up." Sasuke said after checking his watch. He called the waitress and quickly paid the bill before walking out with Hinata following behind him. If anything, Hinata had learned something about Sasuke... and Sakura and Naruto. That was the longest conversation she had ever had with him and he did most of the talking.

Hinata got onto the bike without much prompting and soon they were on the main road heading back to Sasuke's house. If Hinata was honest, the trip wasn't so bad. She didn't know whether it was because they weren't really going fast or that she had something, rather someone to hold onto. All was good until she spotted something that would likely bring her doom. Just on the other side of the intersection about to turn into the same direction at the stop light was a black Chrysler she immediately recognised as one of her family's cars. She pointed it out to Sasuke just as the car joined the lane ahead of them on the clear.

"We'll take the shortcut." he said slipping into the turn off lane.

"Shortcut?" was all Hinata could ask before they sped around and onto the other lane. They were soon speeding down the street and Hinata could only cling to Sasuke for dear life. She couldn't really tell where they were going since her eyes were closed and she had a feeling even if they were open it probably would have been somewhere she hadn't been before. When she finally got up the nerve to open her eyes they were flying. Her squeal was dulled by the rush of the wind but she could feel Sasuke pressed closer to her by her own grip. Her heart almost flew out of her mouth when they touched ground. They wove quickly through backstreets then finally into the driveway and into the garage. They were off the bike and pulling off their helmets as soon as it was parked. They could hear the car pull up in the driveway. Sasuke hurriedly combed his hands through her hair to get it to a neater state and they both ran into the house. They had just entered hall when Itachi came down the stairs with Hinata's.

"Her jacket." he pointed out as he pushed them into the living room just as the doorbell rang. He was off to answer it immediately. Sasuke quickly zipped and adjusted Hinata's jacket before throwing his own off and into a corner. Who wears jackets in their own home?

"You're fine now." Sasuke stated and Hinata nodded. She walked out of the living room into the hall hoping the driver really wouldn't realise anything but she froze completely when she saw the man standing by the door.

"Father?" was all she could manage to say and indeed her father was standing there.

"Hinata, you don't mind staying a bit longer. I have things to discuss with their father." he stated. Hinata nodded getting over her initial shock. She watched as Itachi lead her father down the hall to Fugaku's office.

"We should probably do some work." Sasuke suggested from his place beside her. He wore a blank look but inwardly he was wondering if Hinata looked like her mother because she didn't resemble her father much. He decided not to ask though since she seemed to be in shock from seeing the very person she didn't want to know of her disappearing right before her. Besides, he knew through Neji that her mother had died some time ago. Nobody liked bringing up dead mothers. It was like the sore topic of the century.

They retreated to the living room and went over their work there for the next half hour until Itachi called for Hinata.

"Um, Sasuke." Hinata said pulling his attention from packing up his books from the centre table. "Thanks for earlier. It really helped me feel better even though we ended up talking about our exes. I'm glad you told me about Naruto and even opened up enough to tell me about Sakura and-"

She was cut off by Sasuke kissing her lightly on the cheek before pulling back. He took in her wide eyed red face for a second before speaking.

"Goodnight Hinata. I'll see you on Sunday." he said picking up his books and leaving the room. Hinata stared at the wall where Sasuke's head had just been her eyes getting steadily wider by the second as her capability to think finally came back to her.

'Holy crap! Was that just a goodnight kiss?'


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Sasuke stared up at the ceiling with a bored stare. He had woken up a few minutes before but just didn't have the drive to remove himself from the bed. It was Saturday so the team would be hanging out together. Unfortunately Neji hadn't picked a place so they would most likely end up at the mall and he Neji would be stuck paying for ramen, BBQ and other such things in pretty much bulk. Then he would be dragged all over the mall by Naruto to see the same things that they had seen last week. It was tiring and he didn't feel up for it today.

His thoughts soon drifted back to the night before. He hadn't planned to do any of that. He hadn't planned to take Hinata out, he hadn't planned to talk to her about Sakura and he most definitely hadn't planned to kiss her. It just sort of happened because it ended up being sort of like a date. He wasn't complaining and would never take it back but his plans had been to leave that sort of thing until next year which would be in just under three months. He had planned to just chill and be a free guy.

The problem was his actual feelings for her. He wasn't too sure about them. There were somethings he admired about her, there were some he didn't mind and some he found terribly amusing. He liked her silent determination, she wasn't pushy either and he didn't mind that was usually silent or quietly humming to herself. Her blushing was amusing. Especially after he kissed her. Imagine if he hadn't kissed her on the cheek. He smirked at the thought. He concluded that yes he liked her.

Now, to plan the course of action.

He was shocked out of his thoughts by his cell phone ringing for a text message. He stretched across to the bedside table to pick it up. The text was from Neji reading 'My house.'

His face broke into a smirk. They had a place now and what a place it was.

It only took half an hour for Sasuke to get ready and be at the Hyuga mansion. It turned out that Naruto was a little busy and wouldn't be coming over until sometime later so he didn't have to pick him up. He drove up their drive way and parked the car beside Suigetsu's baby blue junk muffin.

"No Naruto?" Neji asked when he opened the door to let him in.

"Ino." Sasuke answered easily stepping into the house. "How'd you get your uncle to even think of letting them in?"

"I didn't." Neji answered leading him to the living room where Suigetsu, Juugo, Shikamaru, Chouji and Lee were watching television on the huge plasma screen TV. "He suddenly decided it would be a good idea to invite the team over since I hadn't thought of the place yet. Something about friends."

"Weird." Sasuke concluded and Neji 'hmm'ed in agreement. "Did you get that thing that I asked you for?"

"The Thursday thing?" he asked and Sasuke nodded. They changed course to head towards Neji's room upstairs. "I'm not sure, maybe. I got a few of them recently and I haven't sorted them yet."

"I should tell people you collect beads." Sasuke commented suddenly. Neji scowled shooting Sasuke a glare.

"That would be lying." he said as if lying would put a damper on anything that Sasuke could say. He didn't care that it wasn't the truth. The part about Sasuke actually saying that that got to Neji was the damage control that he knew he'd have to do afterwards if anyone believed him. Sasuke smirked as the same thought passed through his head.

"It'd be fun." Sasuke said and followed Neji into his room. Neji rolled his eyes before pointing at his desk.

"The top drawer." he told Sasuke allowing his friends to pass by him.

"What's in the bottom drawer?" Sasuke asked as he approached the desk.

"Mainly junk." Neji answered from the door way. Sasuke looked back at him with an arched brow.

"Junk? In your room?" Sasuke asked disbelievingly.

"You're going to call it junk, why elaborate?"

"You're right." Sasuke agreed after a moment of thought. Neji shrugged.

"Do your thing. I have to go and make sure they don't break anything." he said leaving the room. Sasuke watched him leave then turned back to the desk as he pulled out a small Ziploc bag.

She had been trying to figure out why on The green grass of this planet, would Sasuke Uchiha, kiss her. She didn't get it, she just couldn't understand. It just wasn't understandable. She hadn't told anyone. Not Temari or Ten-ten, she could tell them later when they are out on their girls' day out to the mall. Not Hanabi, even though the girl had spent the entire morning in her room criticizing her clothes and talking about her dislike for the uniform they had to wear at her school. She didn't even know how to feel about this whole 'he kissed me' thing. She was frazzled and didn't think talking about it with other people who would probably expect her to know how she felt was the best course of action. She'd have to think about it first. What was she supposed to say to him the next time she saw him? That was tomorrow!

Hinata looked around her room. It was clean now. She was just about ready to leave. She pulled on her jacket quickly and now she was ready. She pulled her door open jumped out and right into someone else. She squeezed her eyes shut expecting to feel the pain of landing hard on the ground on the ground. It didn't come.

"That was quite an explosive…entry? Exit?" the 'someone' commented and Hinata cracked an eye open to see the very person she had just been thinking about just inches from her face. She felt her face heat up and she could tell she was blushing because Sasuke's already arched brow rose a little higher in amusement.

"H-hi." she squeaked. She tried to push the fact that his arms that were wrapped around were what were keeping her from hitting the ground out of her head. He was holding her in something that almost resembled the dip in a classical dance. The thought of them in formal dress suddenly presented itself in her head. She dismissed it immediately.

"Hello." he answered her. He couldn't help looking at her wide frightened eyes and red face. It was…adorable.

"Um... C-can you take me up?" she asked. They were in an awkward position. What if her father decided to come upstairs for something?

"Sure." he answered pulling her up into his arms and setting her down with her back leaned against a wall. He removed his arms from around her but leaned them on the wall of either side of her. Hinata look at them both then up at him wide eyed. This couldn't be happening. Not in her house! Not where her father could see them! Why did the place matter more than the why?

"W-what are you d-doing?" she asked nervously.

"Nothing." he answered taking in her demeanour. "Just wanted to talk. You seem like someone who would run."

"Run? What do you want to talk about?" Hinata asked pushing away her stuttering.

"I think you know." Sasuke answered leaning a little further into her space. Hinata practically flattened herself onto the wall. He went still just before her. Hinata was almost panicking at how close he was now and was taking breaths to help calm herself.

"Talk." she prompted trying to keep calm. Suddenly he was coming closer again. Her hand shot out and was instantly caught causing Hinata to close her eyes reflexively.

"I want to us to go somewhere else tomorrow." Sasuke's voice whispered into her ear. Her eyes flew open at just how close they were. The only place they were touching was where he was holding her hand away from him. She could feel his breath brush the top of her ear. She froze up. "Is that alright?"

"Uhn." was her choked reply.

"I'll take that as a yes and don't be so tense." he told her and she felt him place a small kiss nearby her ear. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Hinata watched frozen as he backed away. When he released her hand it fell limp at her side. How could he just walk away so easily? Like some lady killer? He looked so cool walking away. He stopped at the staircase to look back at her with a small smile.

"You have nice ears by the way." then he was gone.

'What the hell?' was Hinata's first thought when she came back into motion. 'As if it wasn't bad enough that he kissed me last night he just had to go and do this crap! What am I supposed to think now? What's he even doing here?'

Her cell phone brought her out of her thoughts when it rang. She fumbled with it but managed to answer it in time. "Hello?"

"I'm coming up the driveway now. Get out here girl!" Temari's voice came through and Hinata couldn't help a small smile.

"Yea." she replied quickly before ending the call and going downstairs. She was immediately presented with the reason why Sasuke was in the house when she was greeted by Kiba as he rushed from the kitchen to the living room with a huge bowl of dip. Suigetsu literally hopped along behind him with arms filled with bags of chips.

Hinata could hear the noise the boys made even before she moved to the wide archway to the living room. Most of the official team was there enjoying the huge flat screen television and someone's game console. They seemed to be having fun. She saw Sasuke across the room watching them with an almost serene blank look.

The obnoxious honking of a horn from outside heralded the arrival of the Sabaku siblings. Hinata could see them through glass windows of the living room. She saw Temari jump out of the back of the van before it even stopped properly and sprint around to the driver's seat to yank Kankuro out. He just managed to pull up the brakes before he found himself being shoved away. She couldn't hear them but she could imagine the argument they were bound to be having.

Hinata went to open the door before they knocked. Kankuro greeted her brightly with a quick hug before running into the house. Gaara gave her a respectful nod and entered as well.

"Come on Bunny, we don't got all day!" Temari yelled from the driver's seat as she honked the horn again. Ten-ten poked her head out the door of the Sabaku's monster of a van.

"Let's go!" she shouted. "Hey Neji."

Hinata looked back to see the very person standing there. He waved at his girlfriend but from that close Hinata could see the small smile that he wore.

"Later." he said dismissing her and pretty much pushed her out the door and slammed the door behind her.

Sasuke watched as she left through the living room window. He didn't know what had possessed him to do what he'd done earlier but whatever it was he wasn't complaining. It had been interesting and had given him what he wanted. Technically, she didn't say yes but she didn't say no or even contest his yes when he said it for her. He had a few things to do for tomorrow but those could wait until later. Now the question was: would she get cold feet? The next one would be: how to get her to go out with him again?

"Hinata!" one of the girls called pulling Hinata out of her thoughts. They had finished most of their shopping a few minutes ago and were having a late lunch in a small cafe the mall had. Hinata looked at both Temari and Ten-ten. They both had worried looks on their faces.

"You've been spacing out quite a few times since we got here. You ok?" Ten-ten said, her concern was evident. Temari was also giving the younger girl a critical look as if trying to discern what was wrong with her.

"I'm fine. I think we should talk." Hinata told them and watched as they both looked at her questioningly. "I don't think I've told you everything about the break up."

"What did you leave out?"

"He broke up with me to date Ino."

"Ino? I knew they looked kind close." Ten-ten commented thoughtfully.

"They're together. You wouldn't have known unless you were in my year." Hinata told them

"Why didn't you tell us sooner? I would have creamed his stew for you." Temari said.

"You can't do that!"

"You're right." Temari surprisingly agreed before: "I should cream his balls instead!"

"No. That's why I didn't want to tell you. You're going to get 'payback' now." Hinata protested. She might not have like the reason he left her but she didn't want to get back at him or anything.

"It's only natural." Ten-ten justified.

"We only believe that destroying the guy that destroyed your heart is a balance on the scales of justice." Temari told her with a serious face. Hinata could tell that she was already plotting the method of payback.

"How are you by the way? That whole thing must have hurt. You should have told us. We would have comforted you." Ten-ten added.

"I'm fine. I'm dealing with it. It doesn't bother me it's just a little disturbing when they're being all lovey-dovey but I'll get over it soon enough." Hinata told then. They watched her for a moment before Temari broached a question.

"How are you dealing with it?"

"Intensive training to not care much about anything." Hinata answered. It wasn't intensive but it was training and it was working.

"Uh-huh..." Temari said doubtfully. Hinata cared too much not to care. She was so compassionate sometimes Temari swore she would be easily manipulated.

"Is there another guy?" Ten-ten asked and Hinata froze up instantly. Temari and Ten-ten watched as her face coloured and spared each other a glance.

"There is a guy." Temari marvelled leaning forward in her seat. She hadn't expected that. Hinata didn't have guys crawling to date her and with the very strong crush she had on Naruto other guys just hadn't been an option.

"Maybe." Hinata answered timidly. She wasn't ready for this conversation.

"Maybe? What's that supposed to mean?" Ten-ten asked also leaning forward. Hinata wasn't generally a person who would answer with a maybe.

"He's a sorta friend-" Hinata began.

"Sorta friend?" Temari asked.

"I think he's a friend but I don't know if I'm his friend but I might be." Hinata explained with a small smile.

"So you like another guy who doesn't like you." Ten-ten clarified.

"What with you and choosing the hard guys?" Temari asked frowning and took a sip of her drink.

"I don't know." Hinata answered sadly. It's not her fault really.

"Ok, so you like this guy." Ten-ten began but was interrupted by Hinata.

"Yes, no, I don't know."

Temari raised a brow at this but allowed Ten-ten to continue. "Do you think he likes you?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"How do you not know?" Ten-ten asked

"It's confusing."

"Explain." Temari ordered and they waited for Hinata to collect her thoughts. Finally, she decided on where to begin.

"Last night, he kissed me."

"Why?"

"I don't know. It wasn't some super kiss or anything it was just a kiss on the cheek." Hinata answered softly. She was getting embarrassed already.

"Wait, hold on. Last night?" Temari asked and Hinata nodded. "Did you go out?"

"Yea but it wasn't a date or anything. We just talked a little and hung out and afterwards when I was leaving he kissed me."

"Out of nowhere?"

"Yes."

"Did he say anything afterwards?"

Now Hinata blushed red. "Good night."

"Habit." Ten-ten said immediately. "He probably dates a lot of girls."

Hinata nodded since she guessed as much.

"Definitely habit." Temari agreed with Ten-ten. Maybe she should make him get his act straight.

"But if it's habit why'd he do it again this morning?" Hinata asked and her friends shot her a look.

"This morning?" they asked and Hinata nodded.

"Last night and this morning? Hinata you didn't do-!" Temari began but was cut off when Ten-ten slapped her in the head.

"Don't be stupid." Ten-ten said annoyed as Hinata watched amused but confused. "Hinata wouldn't do that?"

"Do what?" the girl asked innocently.

"Stuff." Ten-ten answered.

"With boys." Temari added.

"That you should not do."

"Ever."

"When she's married." Ten-ten compromised.

"Never. Do you want Chocolate to kill her husband?" Temari asked and Ten-ten seemed to contemplate it for a moment before deeming it possible.

"Anyway back to the topic what exactly did he do this morning?" Ten-ten asked and Hinata quickly told her about earlier. The two listened carefully as she spoke.

"He might actually like you." Temari stated when Hinata was finished. Ten-ten nodded in agreement.

"Now the big question: do you like him?"

"I like him but I'm not sure I LIKE him. I only started thinking about maybe liking him last night." Hinata answered. She was very confused about this. She wasn't sure whether to like him or not. "On one hand he's silent, straightforward, sometimes easily angered and kinda mean. On another he's considerate, competitive, gives good advice, level headed and sometimes funny."

"Ok... Is that good?"

"Yea I guess." Hinata answered.

"You're gonna have to stop guessing Hinata." Ten-ten told her.

"Is he cute?" Temari asked.

"I guess."

"Is he blond?" Temari asked with narrowed eyes.

"No."

"Do we know him?" Ten-ten asked.

"Yes."

"Who is he?" Temari asked.

"I'm not telling you yet." Hinata told her.

"It's her fault, isn't it?" Ten-ten said jabbing her thumb at Temari. Temari looked at them wide eyed gesturing to herself. "You always want to threaten guys. As soon as you know who it is you'd probably go searching for him."

"I won't deny my protective tendencies." Temari sniffed. She lived with two boys and while she was the oldest they were bound to rub off on her. Those two were beyond protective.

"I promise to tell you soon." Hinata said with a small smile and her friends gave her smiles of their own.

"Sure, as long as I hear it from you first."

"I have a thought and I'm going to utilize it on Monday."

"What's that?" Ten-ten asked

"Surprise." Hinata answered happily.

"Come on!" Temari exclaimed then whined. "Bunny!"

"I thought you liked surprises." Ten-ten commented. Temari pouted and Hinata couldn't help but laugh. She loved her friends.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

While Saturday had been a fun day Sunday was a different matter. All morning Hinata had been nervous. She had only ever dated Naruto and now she was going to hang out with Sasuke who was the opposite of Naruto. She didn't know what Sasuke meant by 'go somewhere' else but she was going somewhere, most likely alone, with a guy she was beginning to like. In her mind, she had a valid reason to be nervous and that was it.

The nervousness didn't leave her when she got out of the car in the the Uchiha's drive way. She approached the house slowly. She was halfway there when Kisame came around to the front of the house from the side.

"Hey short stuff!" he shouted happily when he saw her. He was sopping wet but smiling. Hinata returned the smile albeit calmer.

"Kisame!" Hinata said happily watching as he approached her. Hinata marvelled at exactly how wet he was. The cargo pants he was wearing was drenched and sagging on his hips, his shirt stuck to him completely showing off him his well-toned torso and his shoes were squelching with every step he took. "What were you doing?"

"Well, first I was doing some plumbing, then Itachi broke the pipe, it sprayed water all over the garage. We started washing the Hummer but then we decided to wash ourselves and our clothes instead. The garage is flooded now. Itachi is trying to find the lock off valve." Kisame answered before stopping just before her. He gave her a wide grin. "Like what you seeing?"

Hinata looked up at him shyly. "I don't know, should I?"

"Of course. I'm drop dead gorgeous!" Kisame exclaimed before sweeping her up into his arms for a bone crushing hug. Hinata squealed when she found herself being lifted off the ground and getting covered in all of Kisame's water.

"You're right with that skin you could be dead." Hinata teased even as she tried to wiggle her way out of his grip.

"I'm hurt." Kisame whined but Hinata knew he was just joking. Kisame had told her before that though the blue tinge was now a part of him he hadn't been born like that. He had turned out this way after being stuck in a lot of blue paint for a long time when he was a toddler. She didn't know if it was possible but she'd go with. It made him interesting, a little weird but interesting.

There was a sudden honking of a horn and they both looked down the drive-way and saw that the car that had dropped Hinata off was still there. Its driver was halfway out of the car frowning at them. She had forgotten that he wouldn't leave until she went inside. Kisame put her down immediately and put his hands behind his back while whistling suspiciously.

"It's ok." Hinata told the driver just loud enough for him to hear. He nodded and got back into the car.

"You don't have to worry; she's too young for me." Kisame shouted after him.

"Hey!" Hinata pouted and slapped him on the arm. He was the only guy friend she had that she could play with like this. Kisame grinned before brushing the water out his hair and onto her. "Stop it! Look at how wet I am now."

"That's the point." Kisame told her with a blank look.

"Are you quite done?" a voice asked from and they both looked over their shoulders to see Itachi at the front door. He had a small smile adorning his face.

"How long have you been standing there?" Kisame asked as he and Hinata turned to face Itachi.

"Long enough to know that Hinata enjoys your company." he answered and Hinata blushed. It sounded a little different coming from Itachi. She started to complete her walk up to the front door but was halted in her steps when water cascaded down her head and began soaking her shoulders. Kisame had taken off his shirt and wrung out the water over her head. She looked up at him in shock. Itachi held an amused smile while Kisame grinned widely at his success.

"Why don't you come inside and get that changed?" Itachi offered and Hinata nodded dumbly. Kisame couldn't hold in his laugh after seeing how hopeless she looked. Hinata sent him a glare but it was nothing close to the ones he was usually served and only served to make him laugh harder. If there was anything good out of this it was that she got to see really shirtless, really wet, really rock hard, ab-tastic dude. All tinted in blue.

"Oh my!" Mikoto exclaimed when she saw Hinata and Kisame. She smiled slightly at Hinata's almost drenched state. "Itachi, go get some clothes for Kisame. You should find some in his sleepover bag in your closet. Hinata, I would lend you my own clothes but you're a little more... Endowed than I am so I don't think my shirts would fit you." Both boys cast a glance at the shy girl between them and nodded in agreement. "And your jeans aren't wet are they? Itachi, why don't you find a shirt for Hinata as well?"

Itachi took note of the quirk of his mother's lips when she mentioned a shirt for Hinata before leaving the room. Interesting.

"Why don't you head to the bathroom Hinata? It's just down the hall." Mikoto told the girl before turning to Kisame. "And you, strip. You soaked my carpet!"

"Don't I get any privacy?"

"It's either here or the lawn. The only reason I'm allowing you to even change in the kitchen is because it's tiled and not carpeted." Hinata heard Mikoto tell him as she made her way to the bathroom.

Sasuke had been texting instructions to Juugo on how to use the new microwave at the base, when Itachi opened the door to his room.

"Lend Hinata a shirt" Itachi said and Sasuke sat up from lying on his bed to look at his brother.

"What?" he asked. Itachi leaned against the door frame with a smirk. He held the clothes for Kisame in his hands.

"Hinata needs a shirt." he rephrased.

"Why? What happened?"

"She got wet. She needs a shirt and yours are most likely to fit her."

"Why can't she use one of mom's?" Sasuke asked and Itachi raised a brow at his seeming cluelessness.

"Have you seen her breasts?" he asked and was amused at how quickly Sasuke's face reddened.

"Fine! I'll find one for her." Sasuke interrupted loudly bringing a smile to Itachi's face. "And don't call them breasts."

"What should I call them, Sasuke?" Itachi asked. He was thoroughly amused now.

"Get out!" Sasuke growled throwing the nearest pillow. Itachi closed the door just in time for the pillow to hit it instead. Sasuke could swear he heard him snickering on the other side of the door. Bastard. Sasuke then turned to his closet. "Clothes for Hinata. What would I like to see her in? Guy clothes? Guy clothes? I don't want to see her in guy clothes... my clothes? She's wearing my clothes..."

"I can hear you talking to yourself." Itachi said from the other side of the door. Sasuke glared at it. "Hurry up."

"Shut up!"

"She's probably cold now. She's not wearing a shirt you know." Itachi said ignoring him. Sasuke froze. He pushed the forming mental image from his mind to grabbed a random shirt from his closet and shove it through a small opening of the door before slamming it shut again. He leaned on the door with a sigh. Itachi purposefully said that to get to him. As much as he hated to admit it, it did get to him. Damn brain supplying imaginary but possibly true images of things he had no right to be seeing. He locked the thought away in a dark place to prevent from bringing it up accidentally.

He grabbed a hoodie jacket from the chair by his desk and headed down stairs. He joined a fully clothed Kisame, Itachi and his mother in the kitchen.

"Why red?" Mikoto asked immediately. Sasuke looked at her questioningly. "The shirt."

"Random." he answered. He hadn't even realized that the shirt had been red. Mikoto shook her head before turning to something she was cooking on the stove.

"Oh, Hinata red fits you." Itachi commented from the doorway. This drew the others' attention to the girl just entering the room. He hated that shirt but Itachi was right, it did fit her. Even if it said: 'BIG is good' and the 'BIG' just had to fit perfectly across her chest and be a completely different colour than everything else. It stood out so much and brought so much attention to a part of her that he really wished people wouldn't look at, not that he cared or anything.

Mikoto smiled slightly at the mildly horrified look that Sasuke was giving the shirt. She could tell Kisame and Itachi were holding in snickers. Hinata looked a little embarrassed.

"I thought you'd want a jacket since you always wear one." Sasuke said suddenly holding the black hoodie to her. She took it with a smile and pulled it on. She looked up from pulling the zip up to see Sasuke looking at her. Everyone else was silently watching. "Get your bag, we're going out."

"Out?" Hinata asked confused.

"Yes." Sasuke answered before taking her hand in his and pulling her along with him through the kitchen door. The called over his shoulder: "Later."

"Where are we going?" Hinata asked following him to the garage. She had grabbed her bag from the counter before they had left the kitchen. A thought came to her just after asking. "Are we taking the bike again?"

"No we'll just take the car." he answered. When they stepped into the garage the floor was flooded. All the cars and car coverings were splashed with water but Itachi's hummer was especially wet. It looked like it had just had a wash. Kisame hadn't been joking.

"Um ok. Where are we going?" Hinata asked as they approached Sasuke's usual car. Sasuke let go of her hand so that he could move to the other side of the car but didn't answer her. "You're not going to tell me."

"No." he answered when they were both seated in the car. He looked over at her as he started the car. "It's not anywhere you wouldn't want to go."

"How would you know that?"

"It's not a bad place. Remember the diner? That wasn't a bad place." Sasuke said and watched as she seemed to calm down a little. "Do I look like I would take you to somewhere you would hate?"

Hinata blushed slightly in what Sasuke thought was embarrassment but was really at the thought of Sasuke actually taking her to other places. She didn't see why he would take her out but she had a feeling she would still be as nervous as earlier.

"No." She answered and he nodded once before driving the car out of the garage. Hinata was quiet as they drove. Alone. In a car. Going somewhere she didn't know. Alone with Sasuke. Alone in a car with Sasuke right beside her. They were alone together in silence.

"What kind of music do you listen to?" Sasuke asked and Hinata almost jumped out of her skin at the sudden breach in silence. Sasuke raised a brow at her sudden movement but didn't comment on it. A smirk played lightly on his lips at the small squeak that escaped her.

"Any kind, every kind. Nothing specific." she answered chancing a glance at him. He nodded in understanding. "What about you?"

"Mostly rock."

"What type?"

"All."

"Ok. We should compare some time." she said thoughtfully.

"Sure. Do you have any Favourites?" Sasuke asked and Hinata turned sheepish eyes on him.

"You really shouldn't get me started on music." she warned. He glanced at her and a small smile tugged at him.

"I won't mind if you rant." he told her. He'd love to hear her actually talk for a long period of time. It was unusual and was bound to be interesting. Could she really pull it off? "We have some time. Go ahead."

"Ok but it's your fault if your ears bleed." she told him and she almost got a good sized smile from that comment. It wasn't a bad look on the Uchiha and Hinata tried to burn that memory into her head for future reference before turning back to the road. That's when the rest of the ride came close to becoming a music lecture.

"You actually know a lot of music and about music." Sasuke commented when they finally parked in the parking lot of the second mall. It wasn't as big as the first one so not as many people tend to be there. He hadn't expected one question to lead to all of that. It was interesting though.

"You too actually." Hinata told him before exiting the car. They were soon inside taking care of their assignment on one of the many benches littering the mall.

Suddenly Sasuke paused in his reading to look at Hinata. "Want to go see a movie?"

Hinata looked at him surprised. That was more than out of the blue. "Now?"

"As soon as we're finished." he told her with a nod. She stared at him for a moment.

"Only matinees are showing now." she told him unsure of actually going.

"The show itself doesn't matter." Sasuke told her. He could guess why she was unsure. Matinees were always kids' movies. Sometimes they were downright dumb. He remembered the few times he would so with his family. Itachi would sleep through the movie. His father would glare at the screen and Mikoto would try to get him into the movie. They never did stop annoying him; there was just too much repetition.

"Um. Ok." Hinata told him after another thoughtful moment. She didn't have anything to do afterwards anyway. There wasn't much to do at home and her father wasn't coming home until later. It couldn't be that bad. Sasuke nodded again before turning back to his work. If anything, Hinata thought Sasuke had his weird moments. He tended to do things that were weird sometimes.

By the time they were finished Hinata had been paying more attention to the weirdness of sudden movie and less about the assignment she should be concentrating on. She figured she could trust Sasuke to make the proper corrections without her input.

When they were finished they followed through with the plan and bought tickets for the movie that was just about to start. They bypass the children and their parents and found a seat in the middle of the cinema with a good view of the screen.

"Ahhh shit." Sasuke grumbled when he saw the title but thankfully Hinata didn't hear him. She did however notice his frown.

"Not a fan of unicorns Sasuke?" Hinata asked innocently. No, he wasn't a fan of unicorns. He didn't even like horses. She smiled sweetly at him. "'the show itself doesn't matter.'"

"You're going to hate this movie when it's over." he told her as the movie started. She gave him a side-long look and leaned closer to him to speak softly so they wouldn't bother the others around them. He met her halfway.

"Why's that?" she asked.

"The graphics are going to suck." he answered.

"They already do." she told him.

"The story will be predictable and crappy too." he said and she smiled a small quirk of her lips that he mirrored.

"We will see." she said and from there sprung a heated movie critique whispered between the small space that parted them and over the popcorn that Sasuke held tilted so that Hinata could reach it easily. They paused only momentarily to look up when a mom from the row behind peeked over to see what they were doing sunk so low in their seat and huddled so close together. The moment she backed away Hinata giggled quietly and Sasuke watched her with an amused smirk. The movie was almost over and they were both enjoying the mostly negative comments they shared; some of them tended to be ridiculous. It was at this time Sasuke fixed Hinata with a look while she watched the screen with a smile from something he had said before.

"Hinata," he called quietly and she looked back at him. He looked directly at her hoping that she would realize he was absolutely serious. "Would you be my girlfriend?"

"What?" Hinata asked shocked.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Wow." Hanabi said smiling excitedly at her sister. She was sitting cross legged on Hinata's bed watching Hinata get dressed for school. She was already dressed and had her things ready for school. "Is there something special going on at your school that everyone else doesn't know about?"

"Not that I can think off." Hinata answered as she pulled on one of her newest jeans. "You're going to crush your uniform if you continue sitting like that."

"YOU are going to give dad a heart attack." Hanabi said with a laugh before moving so that her uniform would be crushed more. Hinata blushed slightly but continued to get dressed. "Do you have some boyfriend you're not telling us about or something?"

"I'm not doing this for boys." Hinata told her and she was telling the truth. It was her confidence issues that she was doing this for. Her mind slipped back to the day before at the thought of boyfriends.

_FLASHBACK_

_Sasuke looked at her with an absolutely serious face. "Would you be my girlfriend?"_

_"What?" Hinata asked shocked at the sudden question._

_"Would you like to go out with me regularly preferably as my girlfriend?"_

_"What?" she asked again and he frowned. Was he not being clear? "I mean, really? Are you serious about this? We hardly know each other."_

_"You date to get to know each other better." Sasuke told her. He watched her flounder for a moment. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't like something about you. I'm not telling you that you're going to be pampered or anything like that either. I'm not telling you I have some unhealthy crush on you or anything either. I'm asking because you are one of the few people I actually like."_

_"I understand." she told him. He gave her a calculating look._

_"And I'll understand if you're not ready for that sort of thing." he told her before adding with a frown. "But don't think I'm going to be waiting on you."_

_"I wouldn't. You're not that kind of guy." she said and she honestly believed it. It wasn't that he was trying to be mean but he had already had enough of girls trying to get him to be at their beck and call and be waiting on them forever. He didn't believe in half the things people said about love either. He wasn't into being a simpering idiot for anyone even if he liked them; he didn't love them. If he wouldn't do it for his family; he wouldn't do it for anyone else. "You're not a friendly person Sasuke."_

_"Glad you know." he told her and looked back at the screen to allow her to think without staring at her._

_Hinata watched as the glow from the screen cast itself onto Sasuke's face as she thought about it. Was she ready? Could she date Sasuke? What would happen if she did? What would Sakura do? Could she manage Sakura if anything went wrong? What would Neji say? What would her father say? Did she want this? There was one question she knew the answer to already: her would father be angry. He was angry about Naruto and that was before the break-up. She thought for a minute as she stared off not really seeing that around her the movie had come to an end and people were leaving._

_When she finally came to an answer she focuses in on Sasuke who was waiting patiently on her as he texted. She assumed it was Itachi because they seemed to find something to complain or argue about just to text each other often._

_"Yes." she said and he looked up at her with a raised brow. When it registered he nodded before standing with a hand held to her. She allowed him to help her up before she remembered something and smiled. "By the way Sasuke, I think I actually like this movie."_

_END FLASHBACK_

The whole point of this wasn't to look the part of Sasuke's girlfriend or anything like that. She had planned this before he even thought to ask her. She'd been thinking about it even before that time he kissed her... That had been a surprise.

"Hinata!" Hanabi called bringing her back from her thoughts. She blushed lightly at her lapse but she had been moving on auto pilot so she was fully dress except from her shoes. "Neji is ready. He's been calling."

"I-I'll be there." Hinata told her. Her nerves were catching up to her now. If Neji saw her it would be over before it started.

"Don't worry, you look great. I'll take care of Neji." Hanabi told her before disappearing out the door. Hinata quickly pulled her shoes on before grabbing her bag and leaving the room.

Downstairs Hanabi stood watch at the door way to the kitchen with her digital camera in hand. She smirked slightly when she saw Neji come into the house from his car outside.

"Aren't you coming?" he asked and Hanabi gasped instantly.

"Crap Neji! What the hell is that?" she exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?" he asked with a frown.

"That! You've got stuff smudged on your face." Hanabi lied pointing at his perfectly clean face.

"No I don't." he said subconsciously moving a hand to his face.

"Yea you do. All over here." Hanabi told him and motioning to one side of her face. "You better go wash it off."

"Really?" he muttered and she nodded. He began walking to the downstairs bathroom. "Watch your language and don't point."

"Whatever mess face." she teased and watched him leave. Drama classes paid off. No sooner had he disappeared down the hall than Hinata came down the stairs. Hanabi rushed her quickly out the front snapping a quick picture in the process. Neji returned from the bathroom with a glare and Hanabi smiled at him brightly as she found the most recent picture that was taken.

"It's still there." she told him and she could detect his brow twitching in irritation.

"Out or I'm leaving." he snarled before storming out the door. Hanabi smirked and proceeded to the kitchen to complete her mission before skipping out to the car.

Hinata was in the backseat behind the driver's seat and out of Neji's sight. The drive to Hanabi's school passed easily with relative silence and Hanabi's usual comment about her hated uniform and wanting to go to high school soon. With one final comment about high school being fun and a pointed look to Hinata that Neji missed, she was out of the car and heading up the school driveway.

When Hinata and Neji finally got to school, Hinata took a deep breath and stepped out of the car before her nervousness could prevent her. Neji shut the car off before grabbing his bag and stepping out. When he turned to close the door he saw Hinata for the first time that morning. Sure he saw her in the rear view mirror but he hadn't seen her fully and that was a shocker.

"Hinata?!" he sputtered. She looked up at him with a raised brow. He looked her over again. If she hadn't come out of his car he wouldn't have thought that she was his actual cousin. This was so far from her usual style of baggy and dull clothes. She had on a pair of black skinny jeans that fit perfectly, a form fitting yellow shirt, black short sleeved black jacket that was left open to show of the shirt underneath and black and yellow converses. He could hardly do more than stare as she started towards the school building. At the sound of a wolf-whistle directed at his cousin Neji snapped out of his stupor to glare at the underclassman that had the audacity to do it. The kid made an instant U-turn at the ferocious sight. Neji locked the car quickly before moving to catch up to Hinata.

"Why?" he asked once he had caught up to her. She looked at him with a blank stare that betrayed none of her fear, nervousness and self-consciousness. They were like a rioting turmoil in her but she didn't show any off it.

"When father was teaching Hanabi how to swim when we were younger he threw her into the lake, didn't he?" she answered and Neji nodded not getting the point of the question. Hinata's indifferent expression faltered for a moment with a shaky breath. "I'm teaching myself to be confident."

"You do know Hanabi could have drowned by that method right?" Neji told her. They were almost at the doors. "You can drown and cave under the pressure and come out worse than before."

Hinata faltered for a moment but pressed on. "I won't. I'll make it." she said and Neji pulled her to a halt gently just before the doors. She turned to look at his frowning, clearly conflicted face.

"Just remember I'm here... if anything and I'm sure Temari and Ten-ten will be too." he said awkwardly with a hand resting on her shoulder. He had faith in her and her conviction was something new to him but he'd still be there for her. He extracted his hand and Hinata gave him a small smile at the attempt. She knew he would be. With one last glance at her Neji pushed the door open and held it for her. So began her day at school.

XX

The class was in its usual clamour as it awaited the appearance of their teacher for the session. The noise might have rose or might have fallen throughout the many and varied conversations but Sasuke ignored the noise altogether in favour of zoning out as he stared out the window he was seated beside. He'd never admit it but he really was zoning not that anyone could tell. He had perfected the art of masking zoning out as brooding instead. Looking zoned out was for drooling idiots. That was his opinion anyway.

He was brought from his floating thoughts by a sudden shifting beside him. He looked over and quite literally felt his jaw drop.

"Hinata?" he managed to question after taking in her attire from her perfectly combed hair to her black and yellow converses. He had to look her over again just to be sure. She turned her gaze to him when she heard her name and provided a small smile.

"Good morning." she answered calmly.

"What happened to your clothes?" he blurted and she gave him an amused look.

"I felt I needed a change." she told him.

"Why? Not because of yesterday?" he asked frowning. If that was the reason then this would end before it started.

"It wasn't because of you." she assured him having a vague idea of what he meant. He didn't want people out to impress him. It was shallow. "I had this planned before that or... the stuff before that too." at the pause she blushed. If Sasuke hadn't been side-tracked by everything else he might have found it, dear he say it, cute. "This is the surprise I was planning for Monday. I told you about that, didn't I?"

He thought about it for a moment before leaning back in his seat and pulling his eyes away from her to look at the rest of the class. It seemed that the topic of everything was now Hinata. Many were analysing her and talking in hushed tones about her. Some were giving her appraising her and some were outright staring. Among the analysing were a few of the girls that were really of no importance to him. Kiba, Suigetsu and a few others were admiring her figure. Naruto was staring so hard his eyes looked ready to explode. The only persons not on the topic were Shikamaru who was sleeping and Gaara who was never fazed by anything. Not even the time Gai, their gym teacher, burst through the door of their chemistry class dressed in a tiny green speedo and a yellow duck floater in search of the pool party they were supposedly having. Evidently it had been a contest between himself and Kakashi to see who could get to the pool party first in their swim gear. Obviously that was a prank. Kakashi had later apologised but 'it had been damn funny.'

"Yea. You did." Sasuke stated turning his attention back to him. "This is really a surprise."

"That's good then."

"You didn't tell me why."

"Confidence sink or swim style." she answered with a small smile.

"Oh. You look good by the way." he told her giving her one more look before looking away. "Very attractive. The style fits your attitude."

"T-thanks." Hinata stuttered blushing at the compliment. Sasuke glanced at her, taking note of her blush.

"Don't go back to before." he told her. It would be nice. She really was attractive.

"I wasn't going to." she said with a small smile. It was at this time that their teacher entered the classroom. Sasuke didn't say anything for the rest of the class choosing to stare out the window lost in his own thoughts. That was fine with her but she could practically feel Naruto's stare burning into her from across the room. It was uncomfortable to say the least.

XX

"It's true!" Temari exclaimed the moment she saw Hinata in the crowds heading for lunch. Ten-ten was right behind her sporting a wide grin that matched Temari's perfectly. They swept her into a hug the moment they were close enough to catch her.

"This is the highlight of my day!" Ten-ten exclaimed pulling away to examine her carefully. Temari backed away as well.

"This is one great surprise." she commented as she eyed Hinata along with Ten-ten. The whole surprise thing had been bothering her for a while but now she was happy about it.

"You like?" Hinata asked with a small blush. Both girls grinned again before pulling her to them again. This was a pretty good surprise.

"Of course! We have been trying to get you to do this for years." Ten-ten supplied. It was true of course. They had been buying clothes to stock up Hinata's closet for years. She just never wore any of them until now.

"What made you do it?" Temari asked curiously and began leading them into the cafeteria. They had tried to get her to do it for a while and she never did and now suddenly she was.

"For confidence." Hinata answered truthfully.

"We're so proud of you." Temari said. She was still smiling and she couldn't stop looking at Hinata. She already had ideas of how to dress Hinata up: what to buy, what she most definitely had to buy for the girl to wear and what would look good on her. She was going to have so much fun with this.

"I'll buy lunch." Ten-ten offered before disappearing into the crowd to the lunch line. Hinata and Temari turned to start looking for seats. They had just found one when Ino approached them followed by Sakura and Karin.

"What's with the get up?" Ino asked pointedly examining Hinata with a disgusted look. Karin sneered at them over her shoulder while Sakura seemed more distracted by looking around the room. Hinata could only guess what, or rather who, she was looking for.

"Just a change Ino." Hinata answered calmly though she was already getting irritated by the blond. Temari was silent but matched Karin's sneer with a glare that made the girl look away for a moment before stupidly looking back.

"Change? A change of clothes won't change you from what you are." Ino said harshly catching Temari's attention immediately. "A pathetic little girl."

"Feeling threatened Ino?" Temari asked with a smile too sweet to be good. She cracked her knuckles and the smile became a small sadistic smile as she continued. "Because if you're not, I can help with that."

Ino watched her wearily. She knew a warning when she heard one. Temari was clever enough to make an assessment that she didn't want Hinata to even come close to her position of THE top girl of the school. She was even smart enough to turn it from a taunt into a threat. Ino knew for a fact she would never win if Temari decided to throw down. She swallowed uncomfortably. Temari was smarter than people gave her credit for.

"That won't be necessary." Ino told her with a plastic smile that she had perfected. Temari's eyes narrowed on her speculatively. "Though I suggest you find another table."

Ino walked away and Karin followed behind pulling Sakura with her. True enough they would have to find another table. It had been occupied while they had been occupied with Ino.

"Is it me or does Sakura look like she's cracking?" Temari commented watching the little group go. Hinata didn't particularly care.

"You didn't have to do that." she told her friend. Temari looked at her with a raised brow. "It was nothing I couldn't handle."

"Of course I did. That was three on one. Well two on one since Sakura wasn't here. Karin's an idiot but she has moments when her tongue is sharp. I couldn't just desert ya." Temari told her with a laugh. "You're my friend."

"I'll handle her when the time comes." Hinata told her determined. Temari smiled.

"You will. I'll be sure to teach you how to completely destroy her." the blond said as a dark smile stretched across her face.

"Uh. No thanks. I don't want to end up doing what she does." Hinata told her

"You're such a cute, caring Bunny." Temari cooed hugging Hinata again. Hinata blushed at the statement. She just didn't want to be like Ino in anyway.

XXXXX

Some time that morning, at around 8, Hiashi Hyuga came down from his room well rested from a long sleep. He made his way languidly to the kitchen to prepare his customary cup of coffee before the maid arrived. He was midway through his morning ritual when he noticed Hanabi's camera sitting on the counter by the coffee machine. He frowned at her carelessness before picking it up to move it. As he was moving out of the kitchen to put it away he noticed that it was on and had a picture on display. He glanced at the picture but disregarded it since it could be neither if his girls though the place did look familiar. He was just passing through the kitchen door when it struck him. The place was the very same staircase he was now facing. He looked back at the picture and his eyes widened as he took it in. That couldn't possibly be his Hinata! It couldn't be! It looked like her but it couldn't possibly ever be! It simply couldn't be! But it looked so much like her!

He stared at the picture for a few more seconds in horror. He realised all too suddenly that the picture had been taken just about an hour before he saw it.

"Where did I put the whisky?" he grumbled turning back to the kitchen.

Hanabi's mission was a success. Hiashi was officially peeved by his kids.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Ino watched in boredom as Sakura fussed around her closet looking for clothes. She sat impeccably on the end of the bed while behind her Karin lay on her stomach propped up on her elbows to watch Sakura rushing around her room.

According to Sakura this was the big day, the day that made it exactly one week since she vowed to win Sasuke back and this was the deadline. Sakura was so confident she would win it was almost sickening. Don't get her wrong, she liked Sakura, she was her best friend, but no one should be this confident over something like this. She had confidence in Sakura's seduction skills but she also knew the young Uchiha was stubborn and if he didn't like you he hated you. Or at least came pretty close to hating you. Ino didn't expect much, nothing Sakura could do would work on Sasuke, but she'd support her anyway and pick up the pieces when the inevitable fall came. Sakura was her friend, her best friend, her only true friend. She couldn't just leave her on her own. She'd support her even if it meant giving her false hope.

Karin on the other hand, could go die for all she cared. Not literally, but pretty much. She didn't care much for the girl but it paid to have a lackey. They were good for a few things. Karin was good at what she needed her to be good at. Otherwise she wasn't of much use but to make up numbers though.

"Ino!" Sakura called and Ino's attention snapped to her. She couldn't believe she zoned out and in front of Sakura and Karin too. "You staring into space isn't helping me. Now choose this or this."

This brought Ino's attention to the two sets of clothes in Sakura's hands. She shifted them before her periodically. Personally Ino couldn't care less. It wouldn't matter what Sakura wore she would get the same end result.

"Either will do." Ino answered with a smile.

XX

The morning was lovely and that's saying something coming from Sasuke Uchiha. He actually felt happy when he woke up, while he got ready, when he saw his brother eating the last of HIS cereal, on his way to school. Naturally anything that lovely had to come crashing to an end. That end came in the form of a certain someone he was loathe to be around.

"Hey Sasuke." the pink haired annoyance said to him. She had run over to him the moment he stepped out of the car and had caught him halfway to the doors of the school. It was a miracle she could even run in those heels.

"What?" he answered just for the sake of not having to push her out of the way to pass. He was used to slipping past defence on the field but evidently Sakura was good at basketball and would keep him where he was. She just wouldn't let him past.

"Just wondering if you had anything to tell me." she said smiling like an idiot in his opinion. She was unusually happy this morning. Too happy. To be truthful, her happiness bothered him.

"Why would I have anything to tell you?" he asked her dryly. He just wanted to get away but he couldn't bother to ruin his day any further than it already was and that's what would happen if they made a scene. He could live through this, someday or another. "I don't even want to talk to you much less be near you."

"That's because you can't handle it." she said giving him her best 'I know you want me look' that just caused him to frown at her in irritation. Wasn't she done with this yet? He was over and done with it. This was getting old.

"What do you want Sakura?" he asked hoping she would just back off already. He was getting tired of this. There was only so much of her he could take now.

"To give you what you want." she said cryptically. He maintained a black look at that statement. This couldn't be good. Any kind of cryptic statement like that coming from her was bound to cause him some problems.

"And what do I want?" he asked in exasperation and she gave him a coy smile before placing a hand on his shoulder. That only served to have him wishing for a barf bag. Could this get any worse?

"You want me." she concluded. He pulled her hand off him and dropped it away from his body as he was hit with a wave of disgust. She frowned at the movement. This wasn't how she had expected it to be.

"You're dumber than I thought." Sasuke said pushing past her to resume his walk to the school. This was all just a waste of time. His was ruined. He could tell it was.

"You want me Sasuke." she asserted coming after him. He didn't look back at her. He didn't have to or want to.

"Even if you submitted your entire being to me for me to use in any way I see fit, I would still say no." he called back to her. She came to a stop but he continued walking.

"You'll be begging by the end of the day. You're going to want me so bad." she said with such conviction it only served to anger Sasuke more. What was wrong with this girl? Nobody told him what he felt or what he wanted and he most definitely would not beg for anything. Least of all from her.

"The only thing I'd want from you is your head on a pike." he told her before disappearing into the school. He may have only seemed mildly annoyed on the outside nut he was boiling mad on the inside. There was only so much he could take.

Sakura stared after him. This wasn't over yet.

XX

By the time Sasuke had any classes with Hinata he was furious to the point of unconsciously making juniors and quite a few others wet themselves with a look. Every class he had with Sakura consisted of her continuously throwing looks at him, trying to give him shots at her cleavage and trying to touch him. Breaks consisted of her trying to convince him he wanted and needed her and that they belonged together. It pissed him off. He had skipped lunch because of it. This whole thing was a huge tick off.

"What wrong?" Hinata asked the moment he threw himself into the seat beside her. He shot her a look and saw her looking back at him with a look laced with concern.

Hinata didn't cower under the glare of doom being dealt to her because all that anger wasn't really being directed at her. She hadn't caused it, she wouldn't suffer for it. At least she didn't think Sasuke would take it out on her. She was proven right when he huffed and looked away from her. A little of his anger was gone on that breath.

"The little pink bitch won't leave me alone." he answered and Hinata took it to mean Sakura was pestering him. Not many people could be defined as 'pink' in the school.

"I guess it's only natural." Hinata mused as she prepared her books for class. She could understand the annoyance that was radiating from Sasuke in waves but she could guess the reason for Sakura's behaviour as well. "She should be a little desperate since it about a week today."

"A week?" he asked with a raised brow. If she was talking about the break up that would be about two weeks. There was nothing he could remember that happened a week ago.

"Yes." Hinata said and began to tell him about what she had overheard in the bathroom a week ago. He listened with a frown as she spoke.

"Why didn't you tell me this?" Sasuke asked when she was finished. It would have prepared him for the he'll that was today.

"I didn't think it would have made a difference. Your answer would still be the same, wouldn't it?" she said and Sasuke thought about it for a moment. She did have a point.

"I guess not." he answered and she nodded in agreement. Knowing would have made him possibly a little more vicious today.

"It poses a problem though." Hinata said thoughtfully, bringing Sasuke out of his thoughts. He waited for her to continue. "At some point you may have to push her away with the knowledge that you are, well, taken."

The blush that over took her when she said the last word caused Sasuke to smirk. That was still interesting. He'd have to see it more often.

"If Sakura knows then everybody will know. I think it's best if we tell them, our friends, ourselves before she finds out." Hinata continued.

"You do have a point." he agreed.

"Ok. You tell Neji. I'll tell Temari and Ten-ten. Please don't tell Naruto. He doesn't need to be told and it would probably get annoying if he knew." she said with a frown.

"Why would I? He has nothing to do with you anymore. I'm only telling Neji because he's your cousin, brother, something. What do you call him anyway?" he asked slightly confused. He had always wondered about that. Neji was their cousin and their adoptive brother.

"He's both but we refer to him as brother." she clarified. He nodded in understanding. She continued on the original path of conversation. "I suggest we do it today before she gets more persistent."

"Alright." he agreed and Hinata smiled at him. He smirked. "Can I get a kiss later?"

"Sasuke!"

He was officially in a better mood now.

XX

Sakura was a wreak. Ino was trying her hardest though. They were in the bathroom wasting away the last minutes of school. Sakura had been crying for a few minutes now

"School's almost over, Ino and he's ignoring me." Sakura whined over the sink. Ino patted her back. "What if he still doesn't want to?"

"You can try again. There's still football practise." Ino reassured her even though she knew two extra hours wouldn't matter. It was bad enough that it was after school but those guys were focused when it came to practise or anything football related for that matter. The inevitable would happen. Why did her friend have to fall so hopelessly for one of the toughest guys to crack on school? Couldn't she have gone out with Lee? Lee was crushing on her since she first stepped onto the school. It would have been easier. Heck, even Naruto had a crush on her at their previous school. The guy wouldn't stop following her. It just had to be Sasuke didn't it.

"You think I could do it?" Sakura asked unsurely looking for reassurance in Ino's eyes. Ino gave her just that.

"Yea you could." she said with a smile and leaving the 'if it wasn't Sasuke' unsaid. Sakura's face lit up with determination as she began getting herself together. Ino helped her all the while thinking that maybe she shouldn't condone this. Maybe she was helping this mess get messier.

The school's football field wasn't impressive but it was well kept. The green was well manicured, the track around it was always marked perfectly and the bleachers were always litter free. It was on these litter free bleachers that Temari, Ten-ten and Hinata decided to sit and watch the team practise. Ten-ten had one of her few breaks from track practise and had decided to treat herself with actually watching the guys and her boyfriend practise and train their bodies into the awesomeness that is physical fitness. Needless to say, they were enjoying it. It was half way through this that Hinata finally broached the topic that had been on her mind since her talk with Sasuke.

"Remember on Saturday when I said I liked someone?" he said and both girls switched their attention to her. They both nodded but Temari's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Well we're dating now."

"Say what?" Temari commented frowning. Don't get her wrong she wasn't angry or anything just surprised and not entirely sure about this guy that she knew nothing about. Call her protective because that's what she is.

"Really?" Ten- ten asked. It was surprising that it happened so quickly.

"Since when?" Temari asked and Ten-ten was just as interested.

"Sunday." Hinata told them and they both thought about it for a moment. It was definitely quicker than they thought it would be.

"Can we know who it is now?" Ten-ten asked excitedly. Temari was grinning brightly. This had been bothering her for a while too.

"Sasuke." she told them with a small blush. Admitting it to others was so much different from thinking about it once in a while. Both girls froze in shock.

"Are you shitting me?" Ten-ten asked and Temari stared at her in shock instead. Ten-ten blushed a little and scratched the back of her neck nervously at the looks from both girls. "What?"

"We will discuss your sudden statement and use of mild curses later. I'm the only one allowed to say stuff like that Bunion." Temari told her causing the girl to glare at her. Ten-ten hated that nickname. It sounded like a boil of something even if Temari was just referring to her buns. Temari turned to and asked:. "Seriously?"

Hinata nodded

"This week is just full of surprises and it's only Tuesday." Temari said running a hand through one of her four puffs. She froze when a thought hit her at Ten-ten's next words.

"Yea. First the clothes now we find out you're dating Sasuke."

"The change of clothes isn't because of Sasuke is it?" Temari asked her glare was already coming up with her suspicions. If that guy was bright enough to make Hinata change herself for him, she was going to sock him in the face.

"No Temari. Remember I told you about that surprise on Saturday before he asked me." Hinata said to calm her friend. She didn't want to see Temari attack Sasuke on one of her campaigns to 'protect' her. She probably thought Sasuke was forcing her to change.

"Why did he ask you anyway?" Ten-ten then asked.

"Don't know. He said he wouldn't ask me if he didn't like somethings about me." Hinata told them and they both stared at her thoughtfully for a moment. It was all surprising to them. They glanced back at the field to where they could make out Sasuke doing exercises between Naruto and Suigetsu. "Hello? Are you two still here?"

"Sorry. Still getting over the shock of you dating Sasuke. Isn't he your ex's best friend? Isn't there some kind of rule about that?" Temari asked only sparing her a glance. She was still watching Naruto speak animatedly to Sasuke.

Hinata shrugged. "Sasuke doesn't care. I don't either. It shouldn't matter to Naruto who I date right? He likes Ino now."

"Does he know?" Ten-ten asked.

"No. We're not telling him." Hinata answered turning her attention to the field as well. They were almost finished from what she could tell.

"Well, as long as you're happy and you know what you're doing." Ten-ten conceded with a sigh and a smile. "I'll support you."

"Me too," Temari agreed with a smile then her face became severe. "But I swear if he hurts you he's dead!"

"Yes mother." Hinata said rolling her eyes. They soon realised that the practise was over and began to leave the stands to wait on the boys. On their way down Hinata caught Sasuke's eye when he was on his way to the locker rooms and gave him a thumbs up. He gave her a discreet nod and continued on his way. It was his turn to talk to Neji. He could only hope Neji wouldn't kill him.

When quite a few of the guys had gone to shower he turned to Neji. They were only changing their clothes since they both had decided to shower at home instead.

"I need to talk to you." he said to him and Neji spared him a glance as he continued getting dressed.

"The thing doesn't work?" he asked and Sasuke shook his head.

"It works. That's not what I want to talk about." he said and Neji looked at him with a raised brow. "I'm dating your sister."

Neji stared at him for a moment before giving him a once over then narrowing his eyes and staring again. Sasuke could feel him analysing him. "Ok."

"Ok?" Sasuke asked quizzically. This wasn't what he was expecting.

"I'm assuming you mean Hinata so ok. If you mean Hanabi that's another story." Neji told him and Sasuke stared at him surprised.

"It's Hinata." Sasuke said and Neji nodded. "I'm surprised it went so well considering."

"Considering?" Neji asked sitting on the nearest bench to pull on his shoe.

"Considering the whole Naruto thing." Sasuke said rummaging in his locker. He couldn't find his watch.

"What Naruto thing?" Neji asked but continued to put his shoe on.

"The break-up. Why he broke up with her."

"He broke up with her?" Neji asked quizzically and Sasuke finally found his watch. Sasuke turned to look at Neji's clueless frown and realisation dawned on him.

"You don't know..." Sasuke murmured. He could not believe this. Well, now he knew why Naruto wasn't in pieces yet. Sasuke's surprised tone set of warning bells in Neji head and his frown deepened.

"What Naruto thing?" he asked darkly. Was she keeping things from him? He thought she broke up with him or they had at least left on good terms.

"He dumped her for Ino and told her he never loved her." Sasuke answered. It wouldn't help to hide it from him. He'd be in trouble if he did.

"He did what?" Neji growled.

"Told her everything was a lie and he's 'in love' with Ino now." Sasuke told him. He could practically see Neji's mind make a dark turn and he could see the anger bubble up in his twitching brow and grit teeth. He could even see the Hyuga family trait bringing up the veins around his eyes as he seethed. Neji took a deep breath and calmed himself into stillness.

"Where is the blond dweeb now?" Neji said in an overly calm tone.

"Showering I believe." Sasuke answered looking around at the almost deserted locker room. Quite a few of the others had left already. He could hear the shower running though. Naruto always took so long. He sent Neji a flat look, slamming his locker shut. "Should I vacate the room?"

"Yes. Please." Neji said in the same overly calm tone. "The entire school would be a good idea."

"Don't kill him. We need him on the field." Sasuke told him as he grabbed his bag and left the room. People would say he was leaving his friend to the wolves but Naruto provoked the wolf so he had to deal with it.

It must be said that Naruto came to school the next day in great amounts of pain.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Friday afternoon Biology class was the first class for the day that Sasuke had with Hinata. However, this was not the first class Sasuke had with Sakura and it was depressing. Ever since Tuesday, when he told her no, she had been dragging around a dark cloud where ever she went. Depressing.

He walked into the classroom and immediately went to his seat beside Hinata. She smiled at him. She had a small blush that made him wonder what was up. She said nothing when he asked her so he was content to leave it at that. Watching her blush made him want to kiss her but of course he couldn't do that. She was so embarrassed at small kisses when they were alone, she'd pass out if he attempted anything public. He'd eventually get her out of that. That would mean getting her used to the idea of kissing and that would mean lots of kisses. He couldn't hide the smirk at that thought. He liked kissing and he liked Hinata. He was going to love getting her used to it.

The process had already started a few days before when he had figured out she wasn't that experienced. It was shocking considering that Naruto was kissing Ino so often and publicly it was almost disturbing. So, he had taken it as his job to expose Hinata to the wonderful world of kissing. He had to take it slow though so there was nothing too deep as yet but they came as often as he could get them without them being public. Hinata was almost permanent flustered when they were alone now and it hadn't been a complete week yet. It was good progress if you asked him. For now at least. He had yet to take her out again and frankly he probably wouldn't have much time for a few more days. He had a match to play tomorrow. Team stipulation states he has to go to the next game on Sunday to view their possible opponents. So unless he was taking her to the game on Sunday, they were going nowhere over the weekend. He'd figure something out soon enough.

He sighed softly watching but not listening as Kabuto continued his lecture on something to do with the plant. He didn't know or care particularly. He sunk into his chair sparing a glance in Hinata's direction. She looked especially nice today. The red and dark blue fit her very well. The black leather jacket just helped her look all the better.

"Sasuke?" Hinata prompted and he turned his head in her direction to look at her. She had schooled her face into a blank stare but her voice came out with a hint of shyness. "Do you like today's colours?"

He looked her in the eyes before giving her an obvious once over. "Yea. Why?"

"They were specially chosen to represent your clans colours." she said when her shyness took over and she looked away to the front of the class. He probably thought she was stupid now. This whole thing had been eating her all morning.

A small smile played on Sasuke's face at her confession. It was cute really. Her nervous but trying not to care attitude was cute and the colours were sweet. She was so adorable he wanted to kiss her. So with a quick glance at Kabuto who had his back turned, he did.

XX

The whole school was depressing as far as Sakura was concerned. So many memories of a time that wasn't coming back. She just hoped Sasuke knew he had her heart. He probably had her whole soul. She felt so empty. Everywhere she looked she remembered something else she and Sasuke shared. It didn't help that she saw I'm all around the school and she was practically invisible to him. It hurt to be unwanted. All morning was like watching the most depressing movie of the century. In one moment that depressing movie became a horror movie. She hated horror movies.

As biology class skimmed along Sakura ignored her desk partner in favour of resting her head on the desk. She made sure to position herself so that she could see Sasuke through the crook of her arm. It wasn't so hard since he sat at the back. She was always watching him. She would never admit that she was pining after him but she missed him. She missed him a whole lot more than she thought she should. He looked so out of it today, bored from what she could tell. Cute wasn't a word she used to describe Sasuke but the half lidded, half zoned out look on his face was almost cute.

She watched him snap out of it when the Hyuga beside him spoke to him. He answered. That reminded her that Sasuke wasn't even looking at her. Hinata said something else and looked away. Why would Sasuke even talk to her? To her horror, he leaned forward and kissed her. She sat up and spun in her seat to look them. Hinata looked on the verge of passing out with all the blood rushing to her head. She wasn't just pink, she was red.

Sakura spun again to look at Ino and Naruto's bench. Naruto looked just as shocked while Ino had a quizzical look. Naruto had been turned to face Ino when it happened and so had seen it. Ino on the other hand had her back to them at the time.

"What? Did I miss something?" Ino asked switching her gaze between Naruto and Sakura. They were both wearing the same shocked look. That could not be a coincidence. None of them spoke. "Is something going on?"

"Nothing to worry about Ino." Sakura said quietly with a small crooked smile. "Just something I thought I saw."

"Me too. I thought I saw Sasuke sprout horns and creepy wings." Naruto said with a shiver. It was a lie but he'd deal with it later. So would Sakura. "Was that what you saw too, Sakura?"

"No but it was just as creepy. I think I'm hallucinating." Sakura said before turning properly in her seat. She rest her head the same as before and returned to watching the bench at the back. She couldn't believe this. She had expected him to move on but not this soon or with her. Was he trying to hurt her all over again? Did that girl seduce him?

There had to be a way to fix this.

XX

Sasuke watched in amusement as Hinata struggled to stay calm and not pass out. She hadn't been expecting him to do that. She had expected something more among the lines of 'that's nice' or 'cool' or even 'why?' but not this. They were in class for crying out loud! They would have been in trouble if Kabuto saw. They were luck he hadn't seen them. And now here Sasuke was looking at her as if she was an interesting show. Why was he so amused by this? She hadn't fainted in a while and she wasn't going to do it now. She couldn't let that happen.

"Why did you do that?" she asked when she was sure she wouldn't pass out. He smirked at her.

"I felt like it." he said and her eyes widened at him. How had he not realised she was this cute before? "I felt a little happy that you went through the trouble of wearing my colours."

The smile he got for that almost made his heart stop. She may have stepped away from how close she had been to passing out but she still had a rosy blush that lit her face. Damn it, he was getting soft.

"Thanks." she said softly. Sasuke nodded in understanding and looked away. He watched her through the corners of his eyes and a smirk formed at the smile playing across her face. Maybe he should complement her more often.

"Oh right. How has your dad been with the... new you?" he asked and watched as her face coloured in embarrassment.

"He stares a lot." she answered before continuing. "It's like he's trying to figure out what to do with me and why I suddenly started dressing different."

"He hasn't asked?" Sasuke asked. He had thought that Hiashi would have asked right away. Hinata's father didn't seem like the kind of person to just accept something so sudden.

"I think he's still trying to wrap his mind around it." Hinata said with a thoughtful look. She had expected to be confronted about it already too but it had already been five days. Granted he watched her leave every morning. "I think he's trying to figure out if it's really me. It's like he's waiting for me to mess up and prove it's not me. He looks at me as if I'm a puzzle."

"That has to be annoying." Sasuke grumbled.

"It's uncomfortable. That's probably why he does it." she said before looking at him. "It feels like he's trying to see right into me. You'd hate it."

"Most likely. Are you going to tell him?"

"No. He'll eventually know but not yet." she told him then sighed. "He has ways of milking Hanabi when he wants to. She's a daddy's girl."

"When he does ask, tell me how it goes." Sasuke said and Hinata nodded. They passed the rest of class in silence with Sasuke staring off and Hinata writing. That was until class finally ended and Hinata pushed her notebook towards Sasuke.

"I figure you might need my notes." she explained.

"When are you going to get them?" he asked but took the book anyway.

"I'm going to be at the match tomorrow." she told him. He gave her a small smile. "I'll see you so I'll find you."

"You'll cheer for me?" he asked

"Yea."

"Me not the team?" he asked and she blushed. She couldn't just forget Neji; he would need her cheers too and she would cheer for him.

"You mostly." she compromised. He smirked at her.

"Maybe I should kiss you again." he teased.

"No!" she said instantly and he chuckled.

"I know Hinata." he said then got up and swung his bag over his shoulder. "Are you staying for practice or are you heading home?"

"I have some assignments so I'm going to the school library." she answered following his lead. He nodded in understanding and they parted ways when they left the class room. Hinata began her walk to the library while Sasuke headed to the locker rooms. He was almost there when Naruto pulled him away by the sleeve of his jacket.

"What do you want dobe?" Sasuke asked when Naruto finally stopped pulling him. He brushed lightly at the spot he had been pulled by as he stared blankly at the frowning blond.

"You kissed Hinata." Naruto said crossing his arms daring Sasuke to deny it. Sasuke almost sighed.

"And?" Sasuke asked boredly. He hadn't expected Naruto to have seen but he wasn't going to let his surprise show.

"How could you do that?" Naruto snapped.

"Because I can and I felt like it."

"You cannot do that." Naruto said and Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the order. "You cannot just decide you want to kiss her or you 'feel' like kissing her and kiss her. Don't mess with her like that."

"You can tell me that when you're the one dating her."

"What?" Naruto asked shocked.

"I'm dating her so drop it. It's not that big a deal." Sasuke said and walked away.

"Now you hold it right there mister." Naruto called following him.

"What?" Sasuke asked with a sigh.

"You're dating Hinata? Why? Why would you date her of all people?"

"Is something wrong with her Naruto?" Sasuke shot with a glare.

"No! It's just you date girls like Sakura and Ino." Naruto defended himself. It was truly shocking that Sasuke was dating Hinata.

"Sakura wasn't always the way she is. You of all people should remember that."

"Uh yea. But still, Hinata?"

"You make it sound like a bad thing. You dated her."

"Yea but I'm me. You're ...you." Naruto said as if it made sense.

"I'm dating Hinata. Drop it." Sasuke said getting annoyed with the conversation.

"Ok but..." Naruto stalled. He continued when Sasuke gave him an amused look. "Just watch yourself ok?"

Sasuke shook his head before continuing to the locker rooms. "We're late."

XXXXX

When Hinata was on her way to the fuels from the library she came across Naruto drinking at the water fountain. She had received a text earlier from Sasuke telling her that Naruto knew.

"Hinata." Naruto called when he saw her as she was trying to slip past unnoticed. She turned a neutral stare onto him. She couldn't just ignore him. This could actually be important. "Hey. I want to talk to you about something."

"Yea?" she asked. The blue jersey fit him so well and matched his eyes perfectly. Those were not good thoughts but she couldn't just walk away now. It was irritating that he was still attractive even if she really didn't like him anymore.

"About you dating Sasuke," he began and Hinata inwardly sighed. She crossed her arms as he continued. She already didn't like where this was going. "I don't think you should date him. He's not a very nice person. I should know, he's my friend. He will corrupt you and destroy you. He's not good Hinata."

"And so?" Hinata asked and Naruto gave her a puzzled look. How could he say those things and did he think she was an idiot? It was as if he didn't think she was stupid to just to walk in his without thinking about it first. She glared at him. "How is this any of your business?"

"What?" he asked shocked. He hasn't expected Hinata to snap at him. She never did. This was the second time in just over an hour that had him shocked like this.

"How is any of this your business?" she asked again. Her glare was not letting up. She couldn't believe this guy. "You hold no remorse for how you lied to me and how that affected me in any way. You broke my heart and you have the balls to try and tell me who to date? You have no business in this."

"But why Sasuke?" Naruto asked in a slight whining tone. That had been bugging him ever since Sasuke told him they were dating. It just didn't make sense to him.

"He didn't lie to me, what I see is what I get." she answered angrily and Naruto flinched.

"You're different." he observed and Hinata glared at him again.

"Yea? Whose fault do you think that is?" she asked angrily before stomping away. She shouldn't have lost her temper like that. Her father would be disappointed. That kind of display was not acceptable but it was bound to happen in that situation. It was beyond irritating to see your ex-boyfriend that dumped you for someone else, telling you that you shouldn't date someone. It didn't help that the whole thing still hurt her.

"Hey Hinata!" someone called from behind her. She looked behind her and blanched. There stood Sakura in her depressing garb looking at her with a thoughtful look. She was leaned against the wall and had a slight slouch. "You making a habit of ignoring people when they call you?"

"I didn't hear you. I had my own thoughts to deal with." Hinata said as an apology.

"Well start listening." Sakura told her with a glare as she pushed herself away from the wall. "I'm above you in this school so just because I'm mourning doesn't mean you should ignore me."

'Mourning? That's what you're calling this?' Hinata thought but held her tongue. She instead watched as Sakura approached her. Narrowed green eyes scanned her when Sakura was little more than a foot away from her.

"What exactly are you aiming for?" the other girl asked her. Hinata raised a brow at the question. "What exactly do you want?"

"Want with what?"

"Want with Sasuke." Sakura said and Hinata frowned. Wasn't this all just great? She knew there would be objections and some trouble but really? Right now? Right after Naruto?

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb with me." Sakura snapped and Hinata flinched. If Ino was snippy, Sakura was aggressive and violent.

Where Ino would attack you psychologically, Sakura would attack you verbal and if need be physically. If Hinata was afraid of either of the two, it would be Sakura. Sakura was smart, despite everything; once she got thinking she could not be stopped. If either girls where to be the 'queen' of the school it would be Sakura but Ino was smart enough to assert herself and put Sakura where she would not be bothered by her. She was sure to keep her blind to the fact that she would be better than Ino as well.

"One doesn't date Sasuke Uchiha without wanting something." Sakura stated then began checking on her fingers. "There is money but you don't need that. Your family could possibly be richer than the Uchiha's. There is popularity but you're not the type that wants that stuff. Your new look has me confused on that one though. There is actual love but that's impossible for you: you've had a crush on Naruto for years you're not going to get over him that easily. Then there is revenge. Whether it's your revenge or his revenge, that's the only logical explanation. So you're dating Sasuke to get back at Naruto from dumping you to date Ino who is so much better than you."

Hinata had watched her all along with a frown. This was ridiculous. "You're wrong."

"Excuse me?" Sakura asked. She was not usually wrong.

"Just because you can't get over Sasuke who you have been crushing in for years does not mean I can't get over Naruto. Maybe if you had been in Sasuke's shoes you would be over him but then, you seem like the type that would let anything slide if it's him."

"What?" Sakura asked with a glare and Hinata matched her with one of her own.

"I'm not in a very good mood right now Sakura and neither are you. Let's just leave this until I don't feel like snapping everyone's head off and you aren't still 'mourning'." Hinata told her before walking away. Her day had been going good until Naruto. Why was she not surprised.

Sakura watched her leave in puzzlement. The Hinata before would not have said those things to her. What was really going on here?


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

All noise in the stadium reached new heights when the teams finally entered the field. The vibrations could be felt through the feet of everyone in the bleachers. It was the first match of the season and most, if not all, of the school was out to support the football (soccer). Hinata, Ten-Ten and Temari were no different. All three of them were already in their seats and waiting for the match to start.

"Isn't he cute?" Ten-ten asked just after the kick-off when Neji was taking the ball down to the opponent's goal.

"Chocolate's hair looks like liquid chocolate from here." Temari commented licking her lips. The girls giggled.

"I think that's why you named him Chocolate." Hinata stated turning her attention back to the field just in time to see Neji pass to Sasuke to score a goal. She was on her feet cheering instantly and Ten-ten was right beside her. Temari cheered along with them. It was an early goal after all.

"I feel so left out." Temari said when they sat down again but Hinata and Ten-ten were caught up in the game. Their team's manoeuvring was expert compared to the other team's.

"What?" Ten-ten asked tearing her eyes away from the match for a moment to look at her.

"I feel left out." Temari repeated and Hinata turned questioning eyes on her.

"Why?" she asked and Temari pouted.

"You guys have boyfriends and I don't." she said.

"You had one up to last week." Ten-ten commented.

"Yea but you guys have football team boyfriends." she whined and they both sweat dropped. "Look at you guys cheering your hearts out for them. I don't have any one to cheer for down there.

"Gaara?" Hinata suggested

"Kankuro?" Ten-ten added.

"They're my brothers not my boyfriends." Temari said as if it were obvious that she meant boyfriends instead of just boys.

"I cheer for Neji." Hinata stated confused.

"You used to cheer for Naruto too and now you're cheering for Sasuke."

"You used to cheer for Kiba when you two were dating." Ten-ten pointed out and Hinata

"So?" Temari asked.

"How many people do you want to cheer for woman?" Ten-ten asked

"Can I back track for a moment?" Hinata interrupted before turning to Temari. "You used to date Kiba?"

"Yea. He's cute." Temari said with a smile.

"They were a cute couple." Ten-ten agreed thoughtfully. Hinata stared at her wide eyed.

"Where was I when this happened?" she asked and they both shrugged.

"I guess we weren't friends yet."

"We have been friends for three years."

"Ok. I don't know how you didn't know that."

"Maybe it got lost in the very long list of boyfriends she's had over the years." Ten-ten said Temari gaped at her.

"Hey!"

"My list of them is missing a few too." Ten-ten said.

"You make it sound like a lot."

"Can you count the number of them on your fingers?" Ten-ten asked and Temari had a thoughtful look.

"No." she said embarrassed and Hinata giggled. "It's not like you guys can."

"One hand. Two. Three if you count the three days guy." Ten-ten said matter-of-factly.

"Two." Hinata said and smiled at the look on Temari's face.

"You guys are abnormal." she said and they both laughed.

"It's just you Temari." Hinata told her and Ten-ten agreed.

"Well how about we act like normal girls and admire the football team and I'll tell you who I'm liking now." Temari said smiling with them. They nodded and turned their attention back to the field. "Good. Now Kiba is real cute and sweet and funny and a darn good kisser. I'd date him a second time, we only broke up because of some stuff that had him being too busy, you know. Suigetsu is just creepy. He's half cute but down-right weird and his teeth scare the shit out of me."

"You dated Kiba and he has some huge canines."

"They're not huge they're just a little longer and more pointed than everyone else's, it's a family trait. Besides he's a good kisser." Temari said with a look that said she was reminiscing on those days. "And his teeth don't look like a shark's mouth."

"Hey, I have a friend that has shark teeth and chicks dig him." Hinata said crossing his arms and pouting. Both girls look at her quizzically. "He's blue."

"Did you just say 'chicks'?" Ten-ten asked surprised and Hinata blushed.

"He's blue?" Temari asked trying to imagine the guy. Hinata nodded

"Don't be dissing shark teeth." Hinata said gnashing her teeth in an imitation of Kisame before turning away in embarrassment.

"...Interesting!" Temari laughed at Hinata's embarrassment and ruffled her hair.

"Is he who you got your language just now from?" Ten-ten asked and Hinata blushed again. "Interesting indeed."

"It's cute. Is he like your second boyfriend or something?" Temari asked causing the Hyuga to flush.

"Temari!" Ten-ten exclaimed at the absurdity of the statement.

"What? It's a valid question. She never imitates someone she doesn't like." Temari pointed out looking directly at Hinata as she continued. "She took Naruto's determination, she's definitely getting Sasuke's attitude and here she is defending this guy's shark teeth and mirroring his teeth gnashing. She likes him."

"But she wouldn't two time!" Ten-ten asserted with a glare. She turned to Hinata who still looked shocked. "Are you or are you not dating this guy?"

"No." she answered.

"But you like him?" Temari asked bouncing her brows.

"Yea but-" Hinata began but was cut off by Ten-ten.

"Are you crushing on him?"

"No! He's my friend!" Hinata said

"How old is this guy anyway?" Temari asked her voice loaded in suspicion. Ten-ten rolled her eyes.

Hinata shrugged. "21?"

"What?" they both asked. They hadn't thought he'd be that old. Not that he was old but Hinata was 16 and you never knew what kind of 'adults' were around these days.

"How do you know this guy?" Temari asked instantly going into protective mode.

"Sasuke's house." Hinata answered.

"His house?" Temari's eyes narrowed.

"He's Sasuke's brother's friend." the girl explained.

"What kind of guy is this brother?" Temari continued.

"Temari stop it." Ten-ten interrupted the question and answer she knew wouldn't end until Temari was satisfied and even then she would want to meet the person. "Hinata is allowed to have male friends that are above our age group and if he's around Sasuke's house often enough to be her friend, because we both know Hinata doesn't make friends instantly, then obviously they think highly of him and he's probably a good guy."

"Probably." Temari allowed but her suspicion was still evident.

"Exactly now leave the girl alone and get back to your guy commentary." Ten-ten pushed holing in a sigh. Temari could be a handful sometimes.

"Yes dear." Temari answered with a sniff. Hinata smiled at them both, they acted like a mother and father sometimes and it was always amusing to watch them. Temari got back to what she had been saying about the football team. "So yea, Gaara, Kankuro, Kiba and Suigetsu are out. Juugo is just too quiet. Neji, Sasuke and Naruto are obviously out. Chouji is just not my type. Neither is Lee. I have no idea how you and Neji hang with him."

"He's got a good heart." Ten-ten told her.

"He's weird." Temari countered

"He's got a good heart." Ten-ten repeated but said nothing else.

"He plays well," Hinata added staring pointedly at the field. "And he's nice."

"Still weird." Temari said sticking to her argument. Hinata laughed and Ten-ten rolled her eyes.

They talked and cheered for the rest of the match until they left the stands to wait on their respective team members. They watched as the team came out and as Naruto eyed Sasuke suspiciously obviously still trying to figure out his latest relationship. They watched as he instantly quailed under the glare that Neji sent him after Sasuke told him Naruto was looking his way. He was obviously still angry at the blond. How they played so well like this was a mystery to the girls.

XXXXX

Some days later, Sasuke sat in his living room watching a re-run of one of his mother's favourite soap opera from that morning with her curled into his side. To say the show confused him was an understatement. He stopped paying attention after the first guy got slapped for no reason. Now he just stared past the screen and patted Mikoto's head when sobbed for the characters or jumped in shock of something of the other. He pulled out his cell phone when he realised that now that that soap opera was over another of her favourites was starting. He sifted through his contacts until he found Hinata and began texting her.

'Hey u busy?' he asked.

'No. Not much 2 do and dads nt home.' she replied almost instantly and he had an idea.

'Get dressed.'

'Y?' she asked. She was lying in bed reading one of her novels for literature and dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. Needless to say the book was boring.

'We r going out.' he replied and she raised a brow before checking the time.

'It's almost 10.'

'That's the point.' he texted back and Hinata stared at her phone blankly. Was he serious?

'Y?' she asked

'U hav 15 mins 2 get ready im coming 2 pic u up.' was the reply she received. She stared at the phone again. He was serious.

Hinata poked her head out the door and called down the hall. "Hanabi!"

Her sister stepped into the hall chewing gum obnoxiously and tapping away at her phone. She looked up at Hinata but didn't stop her movement. Hinata gestured for her to come to her and she came close enough that Hinata could show her the last text she received. She read it rapidly before breaking out into a grin.

"Oooo late night tryst. I like it." she said slyly. Hinata blushed before pulling her into the room.

"Noooo. It's not like that." she said closing the door.

"What is it then?" Hanabi asked still smiling. Hinata glared at her.

"I don't know." she admitted.

"Well get dressed then." Hanabi prompted before jumping onto Hinata's bed. Hinata shuffled her feet.

"Um help?"

"Randomise sis." Hanabi told her and Hinata nodded before turning to her closet.

XX

Neji was just about to head into the kitchen for something to eat when the doorbell rings. With a frown he turns to the door and pulls it open a fraction.

"Hey." the visitor stated with a small wave.

"Sasuke?" Neji asked confused.

"Can I come in?" he asked and Neji nodded.

"Sure. What's up?" Neji told him stepping aside to let him in. Sasuke passed into the house easily.

"I'm taking your sister out." he answered as Neji closed the door behind him.

"Ok wait... what?" Neji asked before looking at the clock then back at Sasuke who had made his way to the stairs. "It's ten, in the night."

"I can read the time." Sasuke said continuing up the stairs. Neji was following him up the stairs instantly.

"Then you'll realise it's late."

"It's just about the right time actually."

"No, it's not." Neji said as Sasuke stopped before what he assumed was Hinata's door. He knocked quickly.

"Are you ready?" he asked and received shuffling and a muffled 'coming' from the other side.

"Are you even listening to me?" Neji asked. He could practically feel his blood pressure rising.

"Not really." Sasuke answered and Neji glared at him. The door opened before Neji could say anything and Hanabi smiled at them both.

"Sup?" she greeted Sasuke before turning back into the room. They followed her in and Sasuke ignored the grumbling Neji in favour of looking at Hinata. She looked nice but there was something that needed to change.

"You need a skirt." he said and Hinata blanched.

"What?"

"You need a skirt." Sasuke repeated moving to Hinata's closet. He shifted through a few hangers before pulling out the only suitable skirt he found and holding it to her. She didn't have much of them anyway. "I realise you prefer pants or jeans but you have to wear a skirt tonight. You can wear tights or shorts that match it under it if it will make you feel any better."

Hinata stared at him for a moment. They all stared at him for a moment.

"Well get going Hinata." Hanabi said finally breaking the freeze. Hinata jumped slightly but took the skirt and left the room to the adjoined bathroom. Hanabi grabbed Neji by the sleeve and began pulling him out of the room. "Come on big guy. We have stuff to talk about."

Sasuke watched them go then looked around the room. He hadn't been in Hinata's room before and he had to say it suited her. It wasn't overly girly; the only part that looked relatively girly was a dresser that had a few cosmetics. Everything else was average and absolutely normal until Sasuke turned and caught sight of the fourth wall. This was the wall that the bed faced, the wall that the door swung to, the wall he had had his back to. This wall housed her entire CD-collection, her stereo system and her computer. It was beautiful. Completely, marvellously beautiful.

"How did I not see this when I came in?" he mumbled taking a step towards the music haven. A person generally notices when an entire wall is a different colour than the rest of the room. 'Was I that distracted by Hinata?'

He was snapped out of it by the click of the bathroom door opening but he didn't tear his eyes away from the wall. Hinata stepped out of the bathroom timidly. She didn't like skirts much so it was a little awkward to be wearing one especially in the presence of Sasuke. She shifted uncomfortably by the door. She was thankful he hadn't looked at her yet. She was bound to blush in embarrassment.

"I like your collection." he commented and now Hinata blushed.

"It's obsessive." she said hiding her dejection and embarrassment. She was so weird. No normal person had that many CDs. She was definitely abnormal and he was just being nice, she was thinking. Or he was preparing her for the fall; Sasuke wasn't nice for no reason.

"Is that a bad thing?" he asked putting his hands in his pockets as he studied a few more titles. "I mean, it's not like you're collecting baby's bones or men's underwear and shaving cream, are you?"

"No." she answered. He finally turned to look at her.

"Then you're ok." he said then examined her again. "The skirt fits you. Your legs are nice."

"W-what?" she asked going red again. He smirked at her as she moved her hands in an attempt to pull her skirt a little lower.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked and she nodded slowly. He opened the door for her and she hesitantly walked out. He had no complaints about how short the skirt was as he watched her pass. He had seen shorter skirts what didn't fit the person this well and mid-thigh wasn't a bad length. She glanced back at him and he smirked wickedly. He was going to have fun tonight.

They spotted Neji and Hanabi by the door as they came down the stairs. Hanabi was smiling while Neji was fuming and mumbling under his breath. He glared at Sasuke when they reached the landing.

"Take her back in one piece or I'll send you home in pieces, football be screwed." Neji said glaring daggers into Sasuke. Sasuke nodded in acceptance of the terms and Neji stalked away once again grumbling to himself.

Hinata raised a brow at Hanabi. "What did you do?"

"Nothing. Just convinced him that you should be allowed to have at least one late night out while Dad's gone." her sister replied with a shrug and a smile. "Needless to say he was not happy with my methods or reasoning."

"Do I want to know?" Hinata asked worriedly.

"No. Get going." she answered instantly. Sasuke needed no more prompting to take Hinata's hand in his and pull her with him through the door and down the driveway a little ways. Hinata was about to ask where his car was when she saw the yellow? Lamborghini parked on the side of the driveway out of view of the house.

"Neji would have freaked even more if he saw this so I made sure he didn't see it." Sasuke explained leading her to it. She gaped at the sleek vehicle just waiting on them to get in and speed away.

"What happened to your car?" Hinata asked still taking in the beauty that was the car before her.

"This is my car. The one I usually drive is my mother's." he told her opening the door for her and helping her in. He closed the door behind her and moved around to his side of the car. Hinata couldn't help thinking that the Lamborghini went well with Sasuke even if the colour was a little off to her. The other car always seemed like a borrowed thing to her anyway. It wasn't really his style.

"Where are we going?" she asked

"You'll see." he answered cryptically.

"It's nowhere bad right?" she asked with a frown.

"Depends on how you look at it." he told her and said nothing more. They drove to the outskirts of the town and a little further driving into the plains that preceded the dessert territory on the way to Suna. Hinata watched Sasuke nervously. He gave her a sly smile but said nothing. They drove until Hinata saw lights before them and almost thought they were going to Suna but the distance would have been too little and they had come off the road some time ago. Hinata watched in awe as the lights came closer and she began to make out cars, lots of cars and lots of people. She looked around as Sasuke guided the car through the crowd of people and parked cars. She was still looking around when Sasuke parked the car facing what Hinata thought to be the outside. She hadn't even realised they had stopped until Sasuke opened her door for her because of all the people walking past. She stepped out of the car and was surprised to see the large area that was occupied by the people around her. Sasuke smirked at her wide eyed look.

"Hey short stuff!" a voice called from behind her and Hinata spun to see Kisame smiling at her. He was leaning on the black mass of Hummer that belonged to Itachi. Itachi himself was sitting on the top of the Hummer with a slight smile on his face as he looked down at them. Kisame looked at her fuller and grinned. "Well aren't you a cutie."

"Hey Kisame." Hinata greeted.

"You guys missed the first few races so it's just about your turn Sasuke." Kisame said over her head to Sasuke. Hinata turned to look at him surprised. "We signed you up since you said you would be coming this time."

"Races?" she asked looking between both of them.

"Car races." Sasuke told her and his smirk came about when he saw her eyes light up. It was adorable to see her actually excited to watch races.

"Don't worry Hinata. You've got one of the best seats out here." Kisame told her before gesturing to the top of the Hummer. "Near the track and up high."

"The Hummer?" Hinata asked looking up at the vehicle. Kisame nodded noticing her confused look. "Where Itachi is? How am I supposed to get up there?"

"Well normally you climb." Kisame answered and she gaped at him.

"I'm in a skirt!"

"It's alright." Sasuke said approaching the two. He looked from Hinata to Kisame. "We'll just put you up there instead."

"But it's a skirt." Hinata whined and began fiddling with the ends of the skirt again. There was a reason she didn't like skirts. Now on the one day that she would need to actually club somewhere she was in a skirt. Just great.

"We won't see. Promise." Kisame said offering his pinkie finger. She pouted at the finger. As if that would help her.

"You'll be fine." Sasuke told her wrapping his arms around her from behind. He kissed her in her hair making her blush at the obvious display of affecting. Kisame grinned all the wider and if Hinata could have seem Itachi from that angle she would have noticed the smile he was sporting as well. "Kisame will take you up."

"O-ok." she mumbled and Sasuke smiled slightly into her hair before releasing her and pushing her towards Kisame.

"Up we go." Kisame was the only warning Hinata got before she has lifted like a baby and Kisame stepped onto the Hummer to put her onto the roof as if it was a counter. Itachi offered her a hand to adjust to a place away from the edge. Kisame climbed up after her and Sasuke moved to somewhere where he could see her from his place on the ground.

"I'll be back. I'm gonna go check in with the race master." he said and she nodded.

"Win but be careful." she said supportively giving him a thumbs up. She watched him leave with the car and frowned. "Is this thing safe?"

"As safe as illegal racing can be." Itachi answered and her frown got deeper.

"That's not very safe, is it?" she groused.

"The most he's going to hit out there is probably a wild chicken." Kisame reassured her only to receive a sceptical eye brow raise.

"I actually ran over one last week." Itachi said distastefully as if the very thought of a chicken near his vehicle was a crime. Kisame chuckled and Hinata smiled. They all settled in to watch Sasuke compete and were not disappointed when he came out the winner. Hinata cheered her heart out for her boyfriend. From what she could tell he was good. The whole experience was trilling.

XX

Sasuke smiled to himself as he counted his prize money. The money really wasn't his goal tonight. Tonight Hinata was here. She would be happy he won happy he was safe and would hopefully forget her shyness for a moment, just long enough, to hug him and kiss him and he would be happy. And then she'll realise what she did and turn as red as a tomato and he'd be even happier to see that cute face. Those thoughts and his smile left him though when Itachi's Hummer came into view. Kisame had her sitting between his legs with his arms loosely around her as they both smiled and cheered.

'I'm going to shred him. I'm gonna shred that overgrown smurf to bits.' were the thoughts on his mind as he climbed up onto the roof of the Hummer but no sooner had he sat down and turned to glare at them than Hinata greeted him with a hug. She had crawled away from Kisame grinning widely to wrap her arms around his shoulders and bury her face in his neck. His arms returned the embrace instinctively.

"You were great." she told him leaning away a little to look at his face.

"She was cold." Kisame said as an explanation. He knew all too well the murderous thoughts that had plagued Sasuke just moments before. He would not try to delude himself that Sasuke hadn't seen. "Beside she's too young for me. I like my girls to be at least 19."

Sasuke shot him a glare none the less before removing his jacket and placing it on Hinata's shoulders. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to him.

"Thanks. Are you still cold?" he asked and she shook her head, snuggling into the soft material of the inside of the jacket and into his side. They stayed like that for the rest of the event until Itachi and Kisame took the Hummer to win their own race. They only stayed long enough after that to congratulate them and say goodbye. By the time they reached the Hyuga home it was already two in the morning. Neji was waiting for them and when they drove up to the house he was at the door with his arms crossed.

Sasuke walked her up to the house with a hand in her back. He was inwardly cursing at the glaring older brother. It was just his luck Neji decided to wait up and make his distaste known. Hinata actually looked chastised. Her expression changed to one of embarrassment and shock when Sasuke gave her a swift peck on the cheek before she rushed into the house. Naruto had never been crazy enough to kiss her in front of Neji. He wasn't suicidal either.

"Never this late ever again. We all have school tomorrow." Neji finally said when Hinata and rushed up the stairs. His glare didn't let up but Sasuke ignored it all together with the intimidation it was wrapped up in. Don't get him wrong, Neji was scary but ignored scarier things on a usually bi weekly basis. Namely his boss but that guy was more freaky than scary most times.

"Is it ok on a Friday night?" he asked instead and he practically saw something burst in Neji's head.

"No! Never!" Neji said instantly and Sasuke didn't even flinch. He had expected that. "Her father would kill me if he knew she wasn't here for this long at this hour!"

"Don't be a priss Neji." Sasuke told him before leaving him on the door step. "Later."

"Ass."


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should tell you this now; school is hell. Don't expect anything for at least the next two weeks. Too much things to do and exams start next week. It sucks. Took me long enough to finish this. So until Chritmas or something. Later.

Chapter 13

School the next morning was tiring for both Hinata and Neji. For Neji he had been up worrying his eyes out about whether or not Hinata was alright, when she would get back and hoping that Hiashi wouldn't call or suddenly decide to come home. For Hinata the trip had been a little long and the races had been fun and tiring oddly. The fact that while she was tried beyond relief, Sasuke was right beside her apparently unaffected by the late night, only served it agitate her. She spent the class glaring at the notebook in front of her while Sasuke took notes for that class. She was too tired to sleep. It was too unbelievable and downright frustrating.

Sasuke spared Hinata glances anytime he could so that he could see her face. She was cute when she was frustrated. She certainly pouted alot. He paused in his writing when their teacher for the class exited the class to deal with a matter. He turned his attention to her. She turned her glare onto him when she noticed watching her.

"What?" she asked irritably and Sasuke chuckled. Her eyes narrowed at him in suspicion.

"Nothing." he answered and she continued to look at him with narrowed eyes. Deciding she had things that required less brain power than trying to figure him out that she could do she turned her attention back to the desk.

"Attention! Attention!" someone suddenly called and everyone turned their attention to the blond standing on his desk. Sasuke held in a sigh as Naruto grinned at them all. "Pretty much all of you should know this by now but tomorrow is my birthday! That's not what I want to announce though."

"Right..." both Sasuke and Hinata thought giving him a flat look that he totally missed.

"What I want to announce is my birthday party." Naruto continued and Hinata groaned. She had wondered when this would come up. Naruto always had a birthday party and apparently they were the high light of the year. Every year. This year would be no different. The question was; was she going to go? "It's a Halloween event. It will be held on the twenty-seventh at my uncle's place and it's gonna be a costume party and all of you are invited. So really, just show up and have some fun."

"I'm in man!" Kiba shouted from across the class and high-fived Suigetsu over Shino's head. Shino scowled at him.

"That's great!" Naruto said giving them thumbs up sign. "I'll be accepting presents starting now until the party but you can always still give me presents afterwards right!"

Sasuke smirked at the blonde's antics. Naruto quickly wrapped up his party infomercial and jumped down just before their teacher returned. This was going to be interesting. His plans could finally be put into place. Hinata looked miserable though. He guessed hearing about an amazing party when you were already frustrated would make you feel worse. They had lunch next so she would have time to rest.

The lunch bell came quicker than they thought it would but Hinata wasn't looking forward to another hour of not being able to sleep. She shoved her note book into her bag and hoisted it onto her shoulders. She had just stepped out of the class when she felt a hand slip enclose around hers and begin pulling her in the opposite direction of her locker. She looked up to see Sasuke pulling her along with him.

"What?" she asked and he glanced at her but ignored the question. He didn't know how she would take the answer and frankly he thought she'd protest. He kept a hold on her hand as he weaved them both through the throng of students exiting classes and heading to the cafeteria or their lockers. She glared at his back. Not answering was not an answer. She didn't try to pull away though, it would take energy she didn't really have.

"Sasuke!" a familiar voice called to him and he paused long enough for Karin to come up to him with a tray from the cafeteria in her hands. There was food on it just like he had asked her when he texted her earlier. He dug out a bill with his free and flicked it to her before taking the tray off her hands. Karin's eyes travelled from him to Hinata to their linked hands before shooting back to him. Her mouth hung open slightly.

"You're going to catch flies like that." Sasuke told her before turning away tray in one hand and Hinata's hand in the other. Hinata followed behind him but glanced back to see Karin gaping at them still before she went out of view. She had a feeling this was going to spread now. Everyone knew Karin was crazily crushing on Sasuke. It was borderline obsession. Hinata could just imagine what was going on in Karin's head now.

They finally came to a stop before a door leaned into to push open. Hinata hadn't been paying much attention to where they were going but here definitely looked familiar. She only barely caught the metal plate on the door that said 'nurse' before Sasuke was pushing her into the room. He let the door close itself behind them.

"Mr Uchiha and Ms Hyuga, how can I help you?" Shizune asked from her desk by the wall.

"Lack of sleep and current inability to sleep." Sasuke told her pushing Hinata towards her.

"Oh. What happened with the Hyuga's last night?" she asked getting up to check Hinata. "Your brother has been here since last period begging me to let him sleep. He irritated me so much I might have slapped him a little too hard with the book. He blacked out for a minute but he's sleeping now."

"It's a testament to how tired he was if you actually managed to hit him." Sasuke commented eying the concealed bed.

"I know. I was so surprised I froze for a moment before I remembered I'm supposed to tend to people who have blacked out." she laughed and turned to Hinata. "Come on. On the bed."

"Eat first." Sasuke told her when she was seated on the bed and gave her the tray of food. Hinata looked from the tray to him.

"It's not yours?" she asked and he shook his head. He will have time to eat when she's sleeping.

"Just get at least an hour of sleep." he told her

"Well aren't you guys the cutest." Shizune said smiling at both of them. Sasuke rolled his eyes and Hinata ignored her in favour of eating. She hadn't realised she was actually hungry before. Sasuke sat with her on the bed watching her eat. She gave him a few quizzical looks at the beginning but eventually decided to just ignore him.

"Hey, would you go with me to Naruto's party?" he asked suddenly and Hinata looked over at him wide eyed. "He's my... close friend so I have to go."

"Um..."

"I'd really rather go with you than alone or with anyone else for the matter." he told her and she blushed lightly. She stared at the remaining food on the tray before her. She didn't particularly want to go but she didn't really have a reason not to go. She gave him one last look before making up her mind.

"Yea."

"You don't have to if you don't want to." he told her.

"I want to."

"Bleh!"

Both teens and the nurse spun frightened gazes to the curtained bed. They saw Neji leaned over the bed with a mess that was apparently vomit on the floor before him. He glared at Hinata and Sasuke. "You two sicken me." he said before falling back into the bed and yanking the curtain shut. The three other occupants of the room look at each other then back to the curtain before sense finally came back to the room.

"Neji you can't just lie down like that!" Shizune said suddenly jumping out of her chair. She hurried over to the bed and yanked the curtain open. "Why did you puke? It can't have been the sappiness! How do you feel? What did you eat this morning?"

"I don't want any more." Hinata said putting her tray aside.

"I'm skipping lunch." Sasuke agreed.

XX

"Hey. Naruto." Sasuke called when he saw the blond on his way out of the school. It was the 10th now and Naruto's birthday. Naruto turned around and smiled at him.

"Hey man! I haven't seen you all day today."

"I sat right behind you in our last class dobe." Sasuke told him and Naruto's eyes narrowed at him. "Anyway happy birthday."

"Thanks man!" Naruto grinned again and pulled him into a bear hug. He pushed him to arm's length. "Did ya get me a present?"

"Yea." Sasuke answered letting his smirk smile slip onto his face. He dipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a thick dark blue band with 'Da Bomb' embroidered on it in orange. "From me... and Neji."

"Cool." Naruto said eagerly taking the band and putting it on. "I'm surprised this is what you got me."

"Why?"

"No reason." Naruto answered with a grin.

"Ok. Well see you tomorrow." Sasuke said patting him on the shoulder and walking away.

"Yea. Tomorrow." Naruto called after him. Sasuke couldn't help the full blown smirk that grew on his face.

XXXXX

Hinata sighed lightly as she walked up to the front door of the Uchiha home. Apparently they were given another assignment to do together the day before when she missed classes at the nurse. It had turned out that Neji had drank some expired milk that upset his stomach. She ended up being just as sick since she had drank the sane milk and frankly watching Neji throw up only made her want to too. It was apparently a similar case with Hanabi at her school.

Mikoto answered the door just as Hinata lifted her hand to ring the bell. She grinned at Hinata and held the door open for her. Hinata smiled

"Sasuke said you would be coming over and you're just on time." Mikoto greeted and immediately began steering her to the kitchen. "I just finished a batch of cookies and a pie. Pie or cookies dear? You can have both too."

"What kind of pie?" Hinata asked watching as Sasuke's mother busied herself around the kitchen. She placed a bowl of cookies before Hinata.

"Cherry." she answered with a smile and put a slice of pie with a fork before her. "Surprisingly, the boys like cherry. They don't actually like the fruit just the pie."

"Maybe because the pie produced is red." Hinata offered and Mikoto looked thoughtful.

"They do tend to like red foods." Mikoto mused before smiling happily. "It's like Itachi. He's not really a fan of chocolate and that stuff but he will eat as many fudge cakes as I bake."

Hinata smiled at her. Mikoto was so nice and welcoming. She was like a mother to everyone. She felt like a mother to Hinata and she had only known the woman for approximately three weeks. Mikoto was just that warm.

Hinata was on her third cookie as she listened to Mikoto talk about a charity event that was being held in the park that she was baking for when Sasuke sauntered into the kitchen. He paused a moment to look at both of them before reaching for the knife to cut the pie.

"Hey. Didn't know you were here already." he said to Hinata before dipping the knife into the pie. Hinata continued to nibble her cookie with a hum and watched him as he worked. He glanced at her then over to his mother. "You're feeding her up with so much sweets, she'll get fat."

"Don't worry darling it'll just go straight to her breasts." Mikoto said off-handedly with a smirk and Hinata instantly became red. Sasuke smirked as well moving to stand close enough to Hinata for her to have to look up to look at him.

"That's not such a bad thing then but don't you think she has enough." he said running his free hand through her hair. His smirk remained in place when her eyes widened and her hands began to fidget.

"Um..."

"Sorry sweetie, you're just so cute when you're embarrassed." Mikoto said with an amused but slightly apologetic look.

"I like you how you are." Sasuke told her with a smile before biting into his pie. Mikoto smiled at them both.

"You kids get to work." Mikoto told them before shoo-ing them out of the kitchen. When they were out Sasuke took another bite before speaking.

"Sit in the living room; we'll just work down here. I'll go get my books." he said and Hinata nodded. He turned and headed towards the stairs when he saw Hinata move towards the living area. The truth was his room was a mess and smelled a lot like gasoline with the slathered clothes he had in there. He had been working on a few things to and frankly he believed Hinata would either take him reconstructing and refilling lighters in his room in stride or totally freak out. It would lead to questions, that was for sure. He found his book and laptop quickly and left the room he only stopped by the kitchen to leave his empty plate in the sink. When he returned Hinata was sitting in one of the larger couches. She already had things out and ready.

"I wasn't sure what to bring." she confessed pulling some of the books closer to her.

"It's Chemistry, I think you're prepared enough." he said sitting beside her on the couch. He handed her the note book before opening his computer. "Familiarise yourself with the notes you missed, I'll start on some research."

"Yea." she agreed flipping the book open. Sasuke wrote beautifully and frankly she was a little jealous. People say guys can't write properly, obviously they have never seen Sasuke's or Itachi's or even Neji's handwriting. Her handwriting wasn't bad but put it beside theirs and it would look like total crap. It was actually legible too.

They were peacefully reading and researching when it happened. There was a loud bang from the region of the front door that shocked both teens. Hinata's eyes flew wide open when a loud wail erupted from that direction.

"MIKO-MOMMY!"

"Shit!" Sasuke mumbled instantly and Hinata turned her wide eyed gaze at him. He was almost snarling and did not look pleased at all.

"In the kitchen, little one." Mikoto called back. Hinata jumped when the front door slammed shut and only a second later a human sized figure dashed past the living room archway on its way to the kitchen. It was definitely not the size on a 'little one'.

"Miko-mommy, kitty feeding!" a voice could be heard from the direction of the kitchen. Sasuke rose with an almost unheard growl and moved out if the room. Hinata followed in curiosity. "Tobi needs kitty feeding!"

"Cat food?" Mikoto said just as Hinata and Sasuke came in to see moving to a cabinet. Hinata's interest instantly moved to the other person in the room. He was taller than Sasuke by almost a head and had the same black hair though his was messier, spikier and longer.

"Can't you ever be quieter?" Sasuke asked and the stranger spun to look at him. Hinata instantly noticed his dark eye. The other one was covered completely by his really thick hair and Hinata thought she saw the edge of what might have been an eye-patch peeking out near his scalp until he broke out into a blinding smile and glomped Sasuke. Hinata expected Sasuke to topple over when the boy practically wrapped himself around him but Sasuke barely moved.

"Cuz!" he exclaimed burying his face in Sasuke's hair. Hinata thought it was cute but Sasuke just looked pissed now. "Tobi missed you!"

"Get off me." Sasuke ground out and Hinata couldn't hold in a giggle. The stranger's attention was instantly brought to her. He gasped.

"White Eyes." he said jumping off Sasuke. He rushed past him to get to her "Hey miss, you're a Hyuga, White Eyes, you know that? Tobi was helping kittens, poor little stranded kittens. You look like a kitten too."

"She's a Bunny." Sasuke told him dead pan.

"Ahh! Yes! Really cute bunny rabbit!" Tobi said enraptured and cupping her face. Hinata watched on dubiously as he continued to stare at her brightly. "She so cute. Tobi likes White Eyes."

"Her name is Hinata, Tobi." Mikoto told him pushing a bowl of cat food towards him.

"Sunflower!" he exclaimed immediately pulling her into a hug. She had her face planted firmly in his chest because that was how much taller than her he was. He was a lot more solid than she thought he would be as well. Hinata didn't think it would get any more odd they it already was until he began singing. "This little sunflower in my garden makes me smile every day!"

"Enough." Sasuke said wedging a hand between them and pulling them apart. Hinata released a sigh of relief.

"Sasuke is so mean." Tobi pouted before taking a seat and the counter with folded arms. Then he spotted the dish in the table. "Cookies!"

"Is he always like this?" Hinata asked Sasuke as they both watched Tobi munch away with his hands full of cookies. Mikoto smiled as him and she cut him a slice of pie and putrid him a glass of milk

"Usually." he answered in an annoyed tone. Tobi was talking again and it was filled with animated waves and a mouth full of food. He was like a four year old.

"Is he alright?"

"Perfectly." Sasuke said and turned to leave. "Let's get back to work, shall we?"

"He's nice." Hinata said before shooting one last glance at Tobi who was telling Mikoto about a new friend he made at the supermarket.

"He's like Itachi and Kisame." Sasuke told her. At her clueless look he clarified for her. "Akatsuki."

"Really?" She asked looking at the bright boy that was still talking to Mikoto in the most animated way she had ever seen anyone his age speak. The third person speech was odd as well.

"He looks younger than he is and is definitely more dangerous than he looks." Sasuke told her and she nodded looking at the ecstatic boy around the counter practically bouncing on his stool.

They were in the living room again when they heard Tobi's exclamation of "No! Tobi forgot the kitties!" before he sprinted past the door way again and they heard the door slam open and closed. Hinata couldn't help but think 'how could that guy be dangerous.'

XXXXX

School the next day began in a calm feel until the school's front door slammed open and Naruto came storming in. He stomped through the school ignoring everyone until he found Sasuke almost instantly. He spun the brunette around to face him. "Bastard! You killed my wrist!"

"What are you saying Naruto?" Sasuke asked innocently or as innocent as an Uchiha could look. Naruto looked at him in suspicion.

"The band you gave me killed my hand. I can't feel it!" he said pushing his hand into Sasuke's view. There was a ring of black dead looking skin around his wrist. "I can't feel anything past that thing!"

"Get that thing away from me. It stinks." Sasuke said batting the arm away from him. Naruto looked at him hopelessly.

"How am I going to fix this?" the blond asked worriedly. Sasuke churched at him. "You did this! You fix this!"

"Nope." Sasuke answered with a smirk.

"You bastard! This is revenge for the dead worms that I gave you for your birthday, isn't it? I told you I couldn't find any snakes!" Naruto told him before stomping away. "You don't have to kill my hands for that!"

"It works." Neji commented leaning on the locker beside Sasuke's.

"I told you, I tested it."

"How long?"

"A week if he takes it off now." Sasuke answered with a wide smirk.

"Spectacular."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The main mall was a huge thing. It had many shops and the food court was huge. Sasuke didn't particularly like going there because it was always crowded but he ignores his dislike of the place in favour of going costume shopping with Hinata. Naruto's party was in two days and it was best to buy the costume now anyway. Hinata was just going with the flow of things. Neither of them were enthusiastic shoppers.

They were just passing by the food court when a red head made a move on Hinata. In hindsight Sasuke should have expected it.

"Hey beautiful. I really like you, you know." he said to her watching her with an unblinking stare. This gave both of them pause. Hinata was shocked this sort of thing didn't usually happen to her. She concluded it must have been the change of clothes after all she hadn't been to the mall since that time.

To say Sasuke was irritated now was an understatement. Why had he not taken this into consideration? How could he have forgotten? As if feeling the glare Sasuke was directing at him the red head continued.

"Sorry, that's just how I am. I like to take away other guy's girls." the red head said addressing him but not taking his eyes off Hinata. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. This was an awkward moment that she didn't quite know how to handle. She tried to think of what Temari or ten-ten would do. Temari would probably flirt with the stranger. She wasn't sure what Ten-ten would do but it was bound to be a better option than copying Temari

"Back off Sasori." Sasuke voiced saving her from try and the red head looked over at him for the first time. The use of his name had brought his attention away from the Hyuga before him.

"Sasuke? She's your girl?" he asked before giving Hinata another once over and releasing a low whistle. "Daaaaamn! My bad."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and Sasori gave Hinata a smile before offering a hand to her. "Sasori. And you madam Hyuga?"

"Hinata, now back off." Sasuke answered for her. He really didn't want the red head interesting in Hinata. That would be all sorts of trouble that would definitely leave to a hospital bed. Sasori shot him a glare at his tone.

"Watch it little Uchiha. I don't tolerate ignorance." he said warningly, his glare was unwavering.

"I don't appreciate your flirting." Sasuke said coolly. Sasori smirked at him.

"And I don't give a-"

"Danna!" a blond called from behind the red head and he spun to look at him. Irritation was evident in his features. Sasuke grabbed Hinata's hand and pulled her away from them.

"Let's go before they start arguing." he explained and no sooner had they walked away that they heard the tell-tale signs of an argument. It was a typical occurrence.

"Who are those guys?" Hinata muttered when she looked back to see Sasori slap the blond in the back of his head. It looked like a playful move like that would have.

"Sasori and Deidara. More Akatsuki." Sasuke told her and slowed down since they were far enough away from the two to not be seen.

"You get along with them well even though you're in their rival gang." Hinata stated pointing out one of the stores that advertised costumes. Sasuke frowned at her words.

"It comes with being related to Itachi." he told her and held the door to the store open for her. They both entered and looked around the store. It was decorated in dark Halloween colours. "What are we looking for?"

"I don't know." Hinata answered. Sasuke rolled his eyes. This party really didn't have to be a costume party. It could have been a normal party but obviously Naruto had to have the best and most fun. "Let's just look we might find something."

"So we have nothing particular in mind." he stated while looking at the things they passed as they walked the aisles. A pair of bunny ears gave him pause. He smirked at the back of Hinata's head. "Bunny, do you want to go as a bunny?"

"You do know that if I'm going to be a bunny you would have to be one too, right?" she answered over her shoulder with an innocent smile. She giggled at the disgusted look he gave the ears. The mere thought of one of those things on his head was disturbing. It almost made him feel sick. "We'll go for something cooler then."

"Do they even have anything cool?" he asked with a look around that said he didn't think so. Hinata shrugged with a small grunt.

"Of course we do." a young brown haired girl said. Her name tag read 'Matsuri' and her smile was bright. "Please come this way. May I ask the occasion?"

"Costume party." Sasuke answered flatly. He didn't particularly like shopping and costume shopping was one of the worst times to go shopping.

"Well obviously but high class or friendly or clubby?" she asked with an exaggerated roll of her eyes and a wide smile.

"A friend's birthday party." Sasuke answered holding in a sigh. This was going to be boring.

"The Uzumaki party?" she asked as if it was common knowledge. They raised their brows at her. Just how many people knew about this party?

"Yea..." Hinata answered slowly.

"How old are you?" Sasuke asked. She was obviously younger than they were and didn't look like a high schooler.

"Middle school. It's so unfair that I won't even get to think too hard about going. It's supposed to be fun!" she whined with a pout. She suddenly turned bright eyes onto them. "If I find the perfect costume for you will you take me with you?"

"No." Sasuke answered instantly. Hinata looked at him at the quick reply. The party couldn't get that bad... but she hadn't been to any of them so she couldn't say. She had heard stories so she really couldn't be sure.

"Will you tell me how it goes?" she asked undeterred. She had expected to get shot down on that one. Hinata watched as Sasuke gave her once over with narrowed eyes.

"Ok but only if we like what we get." he agreed and she lit up instantly. Hinata watched amused at her antics.

"Yes sir! I will go above and beyond duty for this!" she said with a salute. She looked them over seriously before looking around the store as if measuring their uses and gauging what would fit them. "Do you have a price range?"

They looked between each other before answering. "No, not really."

She narrowed her eyes at them before shrugging. "This way then!"

After going through almost all that the store had to offer they still hadn't found anything. Hinata and Sasuke were sitting on a bench that was by the clothes. Matsuri was before them examining a row of clothes with a thoughtful expression.

"We won't find anything here." Sasuke said. He had been through enough clothes for the day. Hinata was too tired to comment. She had done more changing than ever. Her head was resting on Sasuke who was leaned forward on his elbows.

"You're right." Matsuri answered thoughtfully before turning to them. "Let's go then."

"Go?" they asked confused. They had just sat down. Where could they possibly be going now?

"Other shops." she answered before calling to her boss that she was going on lunch break. Both Hinata and Sasuke watched her with slack jaws.

"Are you serious?" Sasuke asked. This girl was odd.

"Above and beyond duty. I want party info... badly." she said pulling them both up. Hinata groaned but Sasuke glared at her hand before pulling away from her. Matsuri ignored it and lead them out the door and through the mall.

"Where are we going?" Sasuke asked when he saw her looking around. He didn't really want to continue this and Hinata was tired.

"Don't know." she answered. She was too busy looking for a shop that would sell what they needed to notice the look the two gave her. She could not be serious.

They were passing by a shop's display when she suddenly stopped to stare at it. A grin stretched across her face that made them flinch. That look had a lot of evil potential.

"Just how rich are you?" she asked with that same look. They shrugged. "This is serious just what can you afford?"

"Hyuga/Uchiha." they said as if that explained everything and it did.

"In other words you can buy and fricking thing you want." she said excitedly and her grin only grew more. She rubbed her hands together gleefully. "Perfect."

XX

When they finally finished shopping and were walking back towards the car park, Sasuke got a call from Itachi to wait for him to collect something that was important. They decided to just wait at the food court since it was close by and they could sit at one of the many tables. They hadn't expected to see the same red head from hours ago siting on the short wall by the food court. With a little grumbling on Sasuke's part, they put their things on a table nearby and received a nod of acknowledgement from him.

"Watch as he fails." Sasori said with an expectant smirk as he motioned in the direction of the blond from before. They watched as Deidara was chatting up a tall brunette that just didn't seem interested in him. "Now watch the pro."

Sasori shrugged off the wall and swagged his way over to them. They watched as he pushed Deidara aside and pulled the girls lips to his giving her the snog of her life. Shocked faces watched as he left her breathing heavy with a flushed face. He looked her in the eyes and said "Friday, seven o'clock, right here."

She merely nodded before he pulled away from her and swagged his way back to the wall with a gaping Deidara following him. Hinata was just as surprised at the whole thing; that just wasn't normal. Sasuke watched on unsurprised he had seen something similar before.

"Swagger like that only comes once in a millennia." Sasori said with a smirk as he slipped back onto the wall.

"You suck." Deidara finally managed to say with a scowl. He never understood how Sasori could get away with that stuff.

"You're just jealous because I'm awesome." Sasori said with a superior smirk that was mocking the blond. "You've got the looks Dei but you can't be this hot."

"Are you kidding me? I'm hotter than you are." Deidara scoffed. Sasuke rolled his eyes. This was going to get weird soon and he didn't want to be there when it did. "Girls are just weird."

"I'll get you a sandwich and a latte." Sasuke told Hinata before disappearing. The two arguing boys didn't even notice him leaving. She wasn't particularly hungry but Sasuke was gone before she could tell him that. Hinata looked between them as they argued back and forth about who was hotter. Suddenly they turned to her.

"Which one of us is hotter?" they asked. Hinata stared at them shocked. They were asking her? They were looking at her expectantly. They actually expected her to answer them. "Well?"

"Um…" she started, looking from one to the other. It was a hard decision. Should she answer them? If she did, who would she choose? They were both hot. It was during this panicking moment she spotted a tall figure that looked vaguely familiar until he turned and she realised who it was. It was ok to choice outside of the choices right? "Itachi."

Both boys were shocked by her answer. That hadn't been the answer either of them were expecting. They stared at her for a moment before their features suddenly took on looks of dislike.

"I'm going to kill him." Deidara growled out as his eyes narrowed into slits. Everyone liked that dumb Uchiha.

"I'll help you. The only one hotter than me is me." Sasori said with a glare. Deidara raised a brow at him.

"You're being awfully narcissistic today." Deidara observed with a look filled with suspicion. Sasori was usually confident in himself but being so out rightly narcissistic was not usual.

"It's the weed." The red head answered and Deidara looked at him with wide eyed. Sasori didn't smoke either. "I found pot in my backyard."

"And you're just telling me this now?" the blonde asked hurt. How could he keep something like that from him?

"I forgot you smoked." Sasori answered with a shrug as if it was no big deal.

"So you smoked it instead?!" the blonde exclaimed making a few heads turn. Hinata watched them wide eyed. Was this a normal conversation? She really didn't think so.

"No... I only looked at it... and dug it up... and burned it." Sasori answered slowly.

"And you inhaled didn't ya?" Deidara asked crossing his arms over his chest with a glare.

"Yea." Sasori said as if it was obvious. Deidara instantly glared at him.

"Imma kill you for killing the weed." he growled taking a threatening step towards the red head.

"Should I be hearing this conversation?" Hinata interrupted and they both turned to her. They had forgotten she was even there. She had been invisible to them because of how wrapped up in their conversation they were.

"No. You shouldn't be hearing this." Sasori said as they both gave her matching dark looks that promised a bad ending. Hinata started at the sight and dark aura.

"Hearing what? What were you saying?" Hinata said instantly.

They patted her on the head saying: "Good girl."

"Do I even want to know?" Sasuke asked when he returned with the food and Itachi. He handed the drink to Hinata and began reaching for the bags. "We should leave now."

"Why the rush?" Itachi asked coolly.

"You made me wait so that you could hand the grocery shopping to me." Sasuke said angrily. Itachi shrugged lightly with a blank stare.

"I'm busy and you're going home now anyway." he said nonchalantly. "It's because Hidan is coming isn't it?"

Sasuke glared at him before turning to Hinata. "Are you ready to leave?"

She shrugged before smiling at the young men. "it was nice meeting you. Please tell Kisame I said hi."

She picked up the last remaining bag and followed Sasuke out. If Sasuke wanted to leave because of this Hidan guy he probably wasn't someone Hinata wanted to meet. It was best to just go with Sasuke. The three members of Akatsuki watched them as they left.

"Why does your brother get the hot chick?" Deidara asked with a pout. Itachi turned a cold look onto the blond. Deidara could practically feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise and become crystalline. Even Sasori could feel the frigid nature of that stare.

"Refer to her as anything other than Hinata and I'll do you the honour of murdering you." Itachi said before spinning on the spot and disappearing into the crowd.

"And you think I'm narcissistic." Sasori asked with a raised brow. Deidara hadn't moved just yet. "'The honour of murdering you'. Wow man, just wow."

XXXXX

Everything fell into place. It all did. He had a date with Hinata for Naruto's party. He wasn't being annoyed by Itachi or anyone. He was simply lying in the couch being thankful of his peace and thinking about how life was good.

It was all ruined by one phone call. He was given a job to do. Granted it was his job but this was the second house this month and usually he only did two or three a year. However he couldn't not do it, not that he had a problem with burning a house down to smothering ashes. No, he had absolutely no problem with that. He loved that. He'd burn a house every week just to have fun. It was what burning the house meant: Hebi was up to something and it wasn't going to be good. Hebi was generally off in its own business and keeping on the down low. If they were getting busier it couldn't be good. He got ready anyway, threw a bottle of gasoline into the car and left the house.

When he got there his brother's vehicle was already there. He frowned at the thought that maybe Itachi might try to stop him until he saw Kisame pulling out two bottles of gasoline from the trunk. If Akatsuki was in on this, it wasn't good. The saying 'let sleeping dogs lie' applied greatly to Akatsuki. If Akatsuki was rousing now hell was coming soon. He did not like this. Everything was good but just this told him everything he needed to know. Something was up and he was in it and people connected with anyone in it would be affected.

But he could be wrong. God, he hoped he was wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going through the chapter for corrections when I got to Sasori's swagging and suddenly I remembered a song that put the whole thing in perspective. Then I started laughing because it sort of actually fit his attitude for this chapter. Don't know it you actually want to listen to it since you might not get some parts but its Swaggin by Wayne Marshall, Fambo and Tifa. Try thinking about it in slow motion. It always works.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we are approaching the half way mark. To be truthful I've been having a few ideas about a sequel popping up in my head for awhile but I won't put much thought to those until I actually get into the serious part of this fic. If I can get through that part I might actually consider the sequel idea.
> 
> Until then it will remain a half of an idea. Well now I give you a little Halloween on Christmas. Merry Christmas.

Chapter 15

All morning Hinata had been getting more and more nervous. Today was the day of the party. She was so nervous that whenever the party was mentioned a small panic started in her. The costume she had chosen would look odd on her. She just knew it. At least Sasuke would look good but then she really couldn't stand near him if she looked as odd as she thought she would. Hanabi had been pestering her about the costume ever since she found out that Hinata had gone shopping for it without her.

Another thing that everyone was talking about was the house that had simply gone up in flames the night before. No one knew how it happened. One moment it was there perfectly untouched and the next it's lit so brightly it could be seen burning from a street away. Luckily the family had bit been home. It was labelled a freak accident but naturally there were rumours and speculation that strayed from that idea. Hinata ignored them it might really have been a freak accident.

So far she was getting through school at a relatively slow pace. She hadn't seen Sasuke much all morning and now that it was lunch time she could make out his head across the cafeteria around the table a few of the other football players, his usual seat. She frowned only slightly when she saw Sakura, Ino and Karin huddled together at their own table. Sakura was doing the talking and Hinata had a sinking feeling she would not be pleased with the outcome of that huddle. Neither would Sasuke.

"Bunny," Temari's call brought her out of her thoughtful silence. She turned her eyes onto her blonde friend. Ten-ten was with them sipping an energy drink. "What are you wearing tonight? We already know you're going."

"It's a secret." Hinata answered with a blush. "You'll see it later."

"Not even a clue?" Ten-ten asked.

"Black?" Hinata offered.

"Why won't you tell us?" Temari whined with a pout. "Please? I want to know. I'll even tell you what I'm wearing."

"No. We'll all make it a surprise." Ten-ten said smiling now. Temari pouted more now that Ten-ten wasn't going to tell her about her costume either.

"Well my costume is awesome thank you very much." she huffed. Ten-ten and Hinata smiled at her. She stuck her tongue out at them before returning to her food. "Is Chocolate taking you or is Hawkman picking you up?"

"Hawkman?" Hinata asked confused at the new name. Ten-ten suddenly spewed her drink onto a passing student and choked lightly before dissolving into giggles.

"It's in the eyes man." Temari said pointing to her own eyes. "No human has eyes that dark."

"Who are we talking about?" Hinata asked.

"Your boyfriend." Ten-ten answered and Hinata blushed lightly.

"Hawkman? Really?" she asked

"I haven't decided yet." Temari told them as she turned in her seat to look across the room at the group of boys with a frown. "I can't seem to find a right fit."

"Knowing you, you'll eventually find one." Ten-ten said just as Sasuke turned his head in their direction. He looked right at them with a raised brow, questioning their reasons for staring. Neji's gaze soon followed his and Ten-ten wiggled her fingers at him in a wave. He smiled a small smile before turning Sasuke's head back to their table with an added slap to the head.

"Yea. Maybe." Temari said turning back to their table. The others brought their attention back as well "So, has anyone noticed how cute the Nara goal keeper is?"

XXXXX

It was almost time and Hanabi was putting on the finishing touches to Hinata's make-up. It was beautiful. It was full black. Hanabi had been surprised at the costume when she saw it. It was a lot. There were so many things that Hinata had to put on and strap on and Hanabi was happy to be a part of helping her put it on. The pictures she would get! She already had her camera and had taken a few already. If Neji thought he was going to get away with leaving without picture bring taken he was so very wrong. She would catch a few of him right after she was finished with Hinata. Her sister looked so great it was creepy. She let out a sigh as she finished and put down the mascara to take up her camera to snap a quick one.

Hinata was dressed in full black from her head to her toes. Her hair was caught up in two and full of curls. She wore a frilly, lacy black dress that reached just above her knees and would have exposed most of her bust if not for the high collared mesh shirt she wore underneath it. The collar of that shirt was lined with a decorative studded collar. The corset held her waist tightly and helped to accentuate the wide spread of the dress caused by the layers underneath. Her legs were covered by black fishnet stockings that crisscrossed over her pale skin. She wore studded black wedges that would be easy to walk in. Her arms were bear but she wore black mesh fingerless gloves and her nails were done with long false nails painted the darkest shade of black and bedazzled with a few tiny diamonds. The most dazzling captivating part of the whole thing was her face. Her skin was already pale but with Hanabi's touches it was more pronounced. Her face was now almost white. Her eyes were rimmed with black eyeliner covered with back and silver eye shadow and mascara had been added as well. They all enhanced the paleness of her eyes in contrast in a ghostly fashion. Her eyebrows were eerily immaculate and her lips were a dark purple that bordered on black. All the black she was wearing contrasted greatly with the few bits of pale skin that was revealed. She looked almost positively evil. The whole outfit almost scared Hanabi. Hinata wasn't dressed as a monster but she was one evil and vindictive looking woman that could pass for a vampire without being one. She was like a really creepy life-sized gothic doll. It was thrilling.

"You look so cool." Hanabi told her. Hinata blushed lightly at the compliment. This whole get up was so unlike her. Hanabi sighed. "I wish I was going too. You have to tell me all about the party."

"Yea. Sasuke should be here now." Hinata said gathering up her cell phone and money. The doorbell rang downstairs. She turned to look at Hanabi as she bit her lip nervously. "Do you think he'll like it?"

"Definitely and Neji will flip." Hanabi said smiling.

Downstairs Neji pulled the door to give Sasuke a calculating look. Hinata and Hanabi had been locked in Hinata's room for ages now and hadn't seen what she was wearing yet. Sasuke himself was dressed rather spectacularly in an old English suit that looked like a butler's uniform from the movies. He stepped aside to let him in and appraised the tailored finesse of the tailcoat. He actually looked elegant. Neji closed the door behind him.

"Wait here. I'll get her." he said before turning to climb the stairs. He pulled out his phone as he neared the top to text Ten-ten. "Hinata, Sasuke is here!"

By the time Neji called Hinata was already a few steps away from the stairs. Hanabi was following closely behind her

"We know." she said causing Neji to look up. He froze mid step when he saw Hinata. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open as he watched her approach. Hanabi smirked at him but he didn't see her. He robotically turned to watch her as she moved to pass him on the stairs.

Sasuke wondered idly why Neji had simply stopped like that, one foot on the ground and the other halfway to the stair above. He became fully interested when she saw another pair of feet pass Neji's and begin to ascend the stairs. He watched as Hinata was slowly revealed to him and she was spectacular. She took his breath away.

She was almost at the bottom when Neji's mind actually began to catch up and his mouth began to move again. He was however cut off by Hanabi

"Sshh brother. Do not speak." she said with a hand in the moments of 'shut up'. He eyed the hand that was very close to his face then frowned at her before looking back down at Hinata as she crossed over to Sasuke. Hanabi sniffled a little and whispered. "They're so cute."

"Cute my ass." Neji growled lowly and Hanabi turned a glare onto him. That was her hard work right there.

"Yea well, it's your turn mister." she said grabbing him by the sleeve and pulling him up the rest of the stairs roughly. She called down to Sasuke and Hinata as she went. "Bye! Have a nice night and take lots of pics to share! And be naughty! Close the door on your way out!"

"You look..." he paused not finding a word that convey his thoughts perfectly. "Awesome."

Hinata blushed at the praise and fidgeted her hands a little. She refused to go back to poking them together especially not in the presence of Sasuke. It made her look stupid and incompetent. Her father already had massive problems with it. She smiled shyly at him. She had been so nervous about wearing this.

"You look awesome too." she said and he smiled a small smirk like smile. He took her hand in his and pulled her closer.

"As is necessary to escort a person as beautiful as you, my lady." he said and smiled a little more when her blush deepened. He gently pulled her to the front door and out of the house. Soon they were on their way to Jiraiya's, Naruto's godfather, house for the party. It was a huge mansion. The party was to be held in the maid's quarters that was really the size of an average house. Not to mention the pool might become occupied as the night grew older.

When they got there they were on time but when they got inside it was obvious that the party had already started. There were a lot of people that neither Sasuke nor Hinata recognised. Did Naruto know these people? They received a few an appraising looks as they shuffled through partly due to Hinata's look and partly due to the vivid red contacts that Sasuke had but in. After all he was her demon butler and red eyes made for a good demon.

The first person they saw that they knew was Lee. Lee was dressed in green spandex with a black thing in the centre of his chest. He was questioning everyone on what they were supposed to be. He grinned widely when he saw them and practically bounced over to them grinning widely.

"Hey Sasuke, Ms Hyuga." he greeted them obviously not recognising Hinata. Hinata wondered if she really looked so different. "What are you?"

"Her butler." Sasuke said not bothering to tell him it was Hinata beside him. Lee would only make a scene and say all the things Neji would say if he hadn't gotten hauled away by Hanabi. Sasuke had to thank the girl.

Lee looked at him for a moment before turning to Hinata "And what are you?

"Your worst nightmare." she answered with a smirk. Sasuke smirked as well, that smirk actually looked good on her. Lee smiled brightly. "And you?"

"Green Lantern!" the older teen answered brightly. Hinata and Sasuke looked down at his spandex and realised that the black part on his chest was actually shaped like lantern insignia.

"His... thing is supposed to be black." Hinata said slowly as they both raised eyebrows at Lee. They knew he was odd, but really?

"Yea but he's 'Green' Lantern, he should be wearing green. I never understood why it was black. Don't they know colours?" Lee explained still smiling.

"...The lantern is green..." Sasuke pointed out. Lee nodded.

"So is the ring." Lee answered showing his finger. The ring there was indeed green, mold green. Hinata and Sasuke looked at it dubiously. "Well the party continues. See you later."

He left leaving two slightly confused teens behind. They watched him leave trying to push the odd encounter out of their minds. They had just succeeded in doing so when they were spotted by the host himself.

"Sasuke!" the blond shouted across the room before pushing his way through the crowd that was getting thinker by the minute. He pulled Sasuke into a huge hug when he got to him with a bright grin. "You came! I thought you might have skipped this year since you're always saying you're going to."

"Be glad idiot." Sasuke grumbled pushing the blonde away from him then smoothing his suit with a frown. He appraised Naruto's costume as he grinned back at him. Naruto was wearing a long flowing black coat with blue undertones, a button-up high collared shirt that goes up past his head and straight cotton pant with shiny black shoes, a long twisting staff, with a large orange crystal embedded into the top so that only its body could be seen, was held in his hand. If they could guess he was a wizard or Mage or something like that.

"I'm a sorcerer. My sorceress will be here soon." Naruto answered for him. At the mention of sorceress Naruto's eyes slipped to the figure standing beside Sasuke. He didn't recognise her at first until he remembered her eyes and his jaw dropped comically. "Hinata?"

Hinata nodded slowly under his gaze. His eyes took in everything. Sasuke would have commented if he hadn't seen his brother, and Kisame but mostly his brother, over Naruto shoulder. Instead he frowned patting Naruto on the shoulder and resting a hand on Hinata's back.

"I'll be back." he growled in warning to Naruto before disappearing into the crowd. Naruto nodded automatically as his gaping look became one of suspicion.

"Did Sasuke make you wear this?" he asked Hinata mentally rolled her eyes. Leave him robe suspicious of Sasuke's doing when it has nothing to do with him.

"No, I chose it myself." she answered and he frowned.

"Why?" he asked. He was confused and disturbed by her scarily beautiful costume. It was different, shocking, and eerie and almost had him sweating at the thought of what if it wasn't Hinata. It looked like if it wasn't Hinata that person would kill him for just looking at her for too long.

"To scare people." she answered boredly. The answer was rather obvious.

"Why would you do that?" he asked sounding disturbed by the mere thought.

Hinata's twisted into a clueless look. 'It's Halloween.' her mind supplied while she tried to figure out why Naruto looked so disturbed. She was saved from this by a towering figure behind the blond. She looked up only half processing who he was because of how dumbed down her brain had become after Naruto's last question.

"Hey short stuff. Looking good." the looming figure of her blue skinned friend said. He was dressed in grey plumber overall splattered with red for blood and a cap. He had a bowler wrench in the hand that was resting on his shoulder. From what she could gather he was a bloody plumber.

"Hey Kisame." she said with a smile at the grin he was giving her.

"You know each other?" Naruto asked incredulously. Kisame grinned widely at him before moving to hug Hinata.

"Of course we do. Me and Sasuke are sharing." Kisame answered and Hinata blushed red as Naruto's jaw dropped for the second time that evening. She tried to stutter out a response even as she felt Kisame's rumbling laugh around her. "Just kidding. We're just real good friends, right Shorty?"

Hinata nodded vigorously thankful that Sasuke hadn't been there to hear any of that. He would not have been a happy camper.

"Hinata," Itachi's voice floated to her as he approached the small group with Sasuke trailing behind him. He was dressed similarly to Kisame but half of his face was 'bloody' and he carried a tool kit. He took her hand into his and brought it to his lips to kiss it with a flourish. "You look gorgeous and deathly scary."

"Thank you." she said courteously. He smiled at her before turning away and disappearing into the crowd. Kisame saluted her before following after her. Naruto might have comment on the past few minutes if he had not been pulled away by another of his patrons. More people just kept coming.

"What did you guys talk about?" Sasuke asked taking Hinata's hand and leading her away from the crowded area. She shrugged but then she remembered he couldn't see her since she was behind him. She should have answered him if she hadn't been interrupted by a shout behind them.

"Bunny!" the voice that was obviously Temari shouted. Hinata spun to look, pulling Sasuke to a stop. He gave her an incredulous look before suddenly Temari nudged her way through the crowd. She was dressed in a purple and white kimono with a red obi and a few hair ornaments. She gaped at Hinata before examining her with a critical eye. "You look smokin'. I am definitely surprised. You two actually look really cute together. I'm feeling the dark vibe. Looking suave up there dude."

"Thanks." Hinata said with a blush. Sasuke nodded his thanks before eyeing her outfit. "What are you?"

"Japanese fan murderer." Temari answers instantly and pulled out two fans that were smeared with blood with a quick move. It was too quick a move to not be a practiced move. The thought only slightly bothered Hinata. Sasuke's brows knit together at the thought. "I look great right?"

"Yea. Have you seen Ten-ten and Neji?" Hinata asked and watched as Temari shrugged.

"Those two will get here soon enough." Temari said before giggling. "Unless they get side-tracked"

"Temari." Hinata chided and the blonde giggled. Sasuke watched then talk a little longer until Temari left to look for one of her brothers. Hinata looked happy. When Temari was gone Hinata turned to him still smiling. It was beautiful. She was almost the same height as him because of the heels she was wearing so he was looking right into her face. He leaned forward watching as her smile was replaced by a growing blush and widening eyes. She was panicking on the inside, he could feel it. She was still cute like this.

"Shit." he said pausing just and inch away. He could see her shocked expression but that wasn't what had his attention now. "Sasori and Deidara. And bloody Hidan."

Hinata looked at him confused before turning to look past into the crowd. She could see a mass of red hair by the door that was topped by a top hat. The blonde beside him was obviously Deidara, the long blond hair was a dead give-away. Behind them was a taller man with silver hair and oddly purple eyes and beside him was another man dark brown hair that fell into his face. His vivid green eyes shone through despite the cover his hair provided. He scared Hinata a little.

"Does Naruto even know the people he has at this party?" she heard Sasuke grumble. She saw his irritated look from the corner of her eyes. He turned her to look into his eyes. "Whatever you do, don't go near to the silver dude. He's worse than Sasori. Unlike Sasori, he will flirt with you even if he knows you're with me. He would flirt with his brothers girlfriend if he had a brother and I don't just mean play flirting. Serious flirting that will definitely lead to more things."

Hinata nodded looking back across. "It doesn't help that he's coming this way, right?"

Sasuke groaned but it was too late to move. Sasori was before them seconds later smiling. He kissed Hinata's hand before Sasuke could stop him. Hinata blushed; this was the second time this evening. Before Sasori could say anything thing though he was pushed aside by the silver haired man from before.

"Hey babe, looking good." he said with a predatory grin as he quite obviously checked her out.

"Go away Hidan." Sasuke said coolly even as he glared at the taller man.

"Shut up chicken strips." Hidan answered having a dismissing hand at him without looking in his direction.

"Get lost man-whore." Sasuke growled and Hidan spun to him looking ready to tear his head off. Hinata's eyes widened at the sudden viciousness but Sasuke was ready for him. He didn't expect Hidan to be suddenly yanked backwards.

"Don't even start." the brown haired snarled gripping Hidan by the back of his neck tightly. "Neither of you even start this shit now."

"Go Kuzu!" Deidara cheered only to get a murderous glare from the brunette. The blind hastily added "Sir."

Sasori elbowed him quickly and sharply with a grunt of 'wimp'.

"No problems tonight any of you or lead will be pissed and I'll dock your earnings because he says I can't snap all you necks." the brunette said squeezing Hidan a little tighter until Hidan was sinking fingernails into his arm that was holding his neck. He spun away pulling Hidan along with him.

"As I was going to say before I was so rudely interrupted by that oaf," Sasori said turning his attention back to Hinata. He ran a hand across her neck, just above her collar, as he began in a dramatic romantic tone. "Your scent is so delicious, I could smell it from a far and it makes me want to suck your blood. But alas, I cannot, for I have broken my teeth."

Hinata snorted hiding her lips behind her hands. Sasori smiled at her.

"You are a vampire."

"Yes and Deidara is my lowly butler bound to me in vampire servitude." Sasori said patting Deidara on the head. When Deidara gnashed at him he slapped him under his chin making him bite his tongue. "So very predictable."

"What about the others?"

"Well Hidan and Kakuzu are doing a Frankenstein thing. Hidan is the mad scientist and Kakuzu is the zombie creation. Kisame and Itachi are bloody plumbers but you probably already know that. Konan and Pein are like Sweeney Todd except tattoo artists. They might actually be doing the temporary tattoos today."

"You've gotta see Tobi and Zetsu. It's both extremely hilarious and depressing." Deidara cut in and Sasori smirked with a nod of agreement.

"Do we want to know?" Sasuke asked and they merely smirked at him.

"I'll be going now. Lots of girls to go around." Sasori said both Hinata and Sasuke rolled their eyes.

"See ya." Deidara said before following Sasori as he left. They watched them go. The Akatsuki were interesting.

As the party progressed more and more people kept arriving. They caught sight of Shino and Kiba at one point. Shino was dressed in a furry high collared and hooded coat as an Eskimo while Kiba and his dog, Akamaru, were his dogs that would be pulling his sleigh. Apparently Kiba had lost a bet and was paying for it. For Sasuke nothing particularly interesting had happened until he went to get something to drink for Hinata.

He froze the moment he saw Juugo idly throwing things that looked too fishy for his liking into the punch bowls with a completely blank look. He looked at Juugo who looked right back at him then he looked at the bowls. Obviously Suigetsu had sent him since nobody would trust an open drink that Suigetsu stood beside. That also meant that this was probably Hebi's fault. Without a comment he turned away and moved to find his brother who would actually have cold or at least cool drinks in that toolbox of his. He resolved to find a way to get Naruto to throw out his drinks.

At the same time Hinata was just moving aside to allow a group of boys to run past with a sofa. One of them looked oddly like Kankuro dressed as a human sized Chucky. She was suddenly drawn to a conversation she had accidentally stepped into.

"So what are you?" a guy she didn't know asked a red head she identified as Gaara. The guy seemed a little tipsy to her. His girlfriend, she assumed, was half way hold him up.

"The Sandman." Gaara answered in his usual tone. The two others smiled

"Oh like the guy that puts people to sleep?" the girl asked and Gaara nodded.

"Cool. Can you put me to sleep?" the guy asked and Gaara eyed him for a moment.

"Go to sleep." he said before suddenly karate kicking him in the face. The guy fell to the floor instantly.

'Lights out.' was surprisingly Hinata's first thought. The girlfriend was instantly by his side panicking.

"Did I miss something?" Sasuke asked when he returned with two cold sodas.

"Uh-huh." Hinata answered. That was about the time that the girls loved him too much and so he might as well give them a show. He was on top of one of the tables giving a strip tease.

Sakura, Ino and Karin soon arrived. Karin had come as a millionaire's daughter and was dressed in a luxurious fur coat and was ladened with jewellery. Not long after her arrival, Kakuzu started removing some of said jewellery and having Hidan do the same. Ino for some weird reason decided that it was perfectly fine that her sorceress costume to match Naruto's was deep purple short shorts and bra like bath suit. Naruto's eyes almost fell out of their sockets and he rushed to drape his own coat around her before too many ogling eyes could see.

Sasuke and Hinata didn't even know Sakura had arrived until she sauntered up to Sasuke thinking he was alone having not recognised Hinata. Her costume was that of a nurse; short, tight and 'sexy'. She leaned into his personal space and attempting to run her hands across his chest as she said sultry "Are there any injuries you'd like me to check?"

Sasuke was not pleased. Hinata cleared her thought to bring the girls attention to her. To say Sakura was shocked was an understatement. Her shock quickly went to annoyance and she shot a glare at Hinata before stomping off.

They came across Kisame and Suigetsu having a drinking contest soon enough. Kisame won soon after with a victory shout of "And the shark swallows the fish!" punctuated by a loud belch. Hinata giggled at his enthusiasm.

Ten-ten and Neji soon found them. They were dressed as a ninja and a bloody samurai. Apparently the samurai, Neji, would not hurt a woman on his honour.

Not too long after that they saw the wonder that was Tobi and Zetsu. It was truly hilarious and depressing. It was depressing that Zetsu had let Tobin dress him up because that was obviously not a costume a grown person would have chosen. It was hilarious to see two grown 'men' dressed as a rabbit and a carrot. Tobi was the rabbit and he was happy to bounce around through the crowd.

In the end the party was fun with lots of music, fun, laughs and ridiculous antics. But of course nothing too fun could happen without something to mess it up even a little. It happened later on in the night when Naruto had dragged Sasuke off for some reason that Sakura struck. She walked right up to Hinata with an impressive snarl on her face and used a finger to push Hinata backward into the wall. Hinata was shocked at the force she was pushed with. She had no time to waste on that thought because Sakura had her stuck to the wall and was in her face. Sakura was angry and Hinata could feel every bit of it. It was mind numbing.

"I'm gonna get you Hinata. It might not be tomorrow or next week or even next month because exams start in three weeks. Heck, it might not even be this year but know this: I am going to get you. And when you're done for, I'm going to get Sasuke back. He is mine and he forever will be, remember this." Sakura told in a threatening tone before giving her one more push and stepping away with a glare. She turned on her heel to leave.

Hinata allowed a shaky breath to leave her as she tried to push away the pressure that Sakura was piling onto her. Sakura was going to kill her, distort her, maim her. She could feel it. She was thinking about it too much, she was going to pass out at this rate. She hadn't fainted in so long and she didn't want to do it now but it was too much pressure. Sakura could very well kill her.

"I'm back." Sasuke's voice called from just out of her line of sight. Her vision swam a little as she spun to grab hold of him by the lapels of his jacket and bury her face into his neck. His hands came up to hold her instantly. His voice was filled with concern when he asked. "Are you ok?"

She didn't answer for a moment but nodded into him. He frowned. What could have happened in the five minutes he was gone? Whoever did it was going to regret it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is the season of giving and all I want for Christmas is a review from each person that reads. It would make my day. This chapter is the longest I've ever written. Almost 5000 words!


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to show that I'm still alive and plan to finish this. The next chapter will take a while. Seriously.

Chapter 16

Neji froze the moment he heard the call. It wasn't often Hiashi called one of them specifically for something. He went through the list of things he could possibly have done wrong even as he turned to look at his uncle turned father. He was in his office, the door he was walking past. Neji stepped into the office and approached the desk he sat behind.

"You called?"

"Yes. There is something that has been bothering me for some time now." Hiashi began and steepled his fingers before him on the desk. Neji resisted the urge to swallow hard. "Close the doors."

Neji moved back to the doors to close them while thinking all the time of his own doom. What had he done? He couldn't remember doing anything that would displease Hiashi. Not for a long time now. He closed the doors quickly and approached the desk again. He realised easily that Hiashi had watched his every move. Now he was getting nervous.

"I want nothing but the truth from you Neji." Hiashi began again. His brow was furrowed together. That alone told Neji he was serious about this. "I've noticed some changes in one of my girls and I want to know the cause of this change."

'Shit.' Neji thought.

"Am I correct to assume it is a 'boy'?" Hiashi asked. He said 'boy' in a tone that displayed all his displeasure of the thought. Neji must not have answered quickly enough in his rush to think of what to say because Hiashi continued. "Of course. Boys."

"Would you have preferred girls?" Neji asked before he really thought about the question.

"Boys will give children when it is time." Hiashi answered with a glare but then frowned again. "But it's the before time I'm more worried about at the moment. This boy..."

"Yes?"

"What are your thoughts of him? His goals visions? His goals? What kind of person is he? Is he any good? What kind of grades does he get? Is he good for her of to her? He's not another idiot is he? Is he a good influence?" Hiashi asked frowning even more now. "Would you accept this guy?"

"Yes. I have accepted him." Neji answered since it was the easiest question to answer. Hiashi was silent before nodding a little.

"Tell me about him."

"Well he's not an idiot." Neji began. "He's actually smart. Hinata's confidence has gotten better since dating him. She's happier too, smiles more. He's on the team and a very good player. He's - He has a charged personality. He's charismatic without really wanting to be and hates the attention he gets. He's an alright person and will possibly be the next head of the Uchiha Enterprise."

Hiashi seemed thoughtful for a moment. "The little Uchiha?"

"He's the youngest is his immediate family but he has younger cousins."

"The one around your age with the oddly styled hair." Hiashi clarified.

"That one."

"There is one thing I don't like about Uchihas. They give off a distinct vibe. They attract trouble." Hiashi said and Neji couldn't help the feeling that he was right.

XX

Meanwhile Sasuke was outside contemplating the future in his car. He was still suspicious of Hebi. There was something going on. Nothing big was happening so far but there were some changes. He sighed before getting out of the car and approaching the house. The door swung open before he could knock or ring the doorbell.

"I was wondering how long you were going to sit there." Hanabi said smirking. She stepped aside to left him in and closed the door behind him. "Hinata is in the kitchen. She's making us lunch. Do not disturb, I'm hungry and I'll end you if you interrupt the process."

"Sure." Sasuke said ignoring her statement. He was on his way to the kitchen when he was stopped by her hand on his arm. She levelled an impressive glare at him.

"I'll have you know that I am a master in my own right and I totally believe I can whoop your tiny little rump." she said and he raised a brow at her. He smirked at her letting a bit manic glee slip into it.

"I'll have you know that I can destroy you completely if I wanted to." he told her.

"Not bad." she said looking at him appraisingly. "You be sure to use that to protect my sis. I'm serious about the ass kicking."

"I'm serious about snapping you in two if you try." he said turning to continue to the kitchen. He found Hinata cutting sandwiches into halves. She didn't notice him at first but when she did, she almost jumped out of her skin. "Be careful now, you're armed."

"Don't just pop up." she told him a pout forming on her lips.

"I wanted to see you." he said hugging her. Hanabi was watching so he didn't bother to kiss her. Hinata wouldn't like it. "I have somethings to ask you"

"You two are too cute." Hanabi said walking over to take the food away. "I hope my boyfriend and I never end up like you."

"You don't have one." Hinata pointed out.

"That's because I don't like any of the ones that ask me. Boys at my school are so lame and annoying." Hanabi told them rolling her eyes. These boys were so incredibly childish they weren't worth her time at all and the only person that wasn't a complete idiot had snot dripping from his nose constantly. The guys from Hinata's school on the other hand were a different story completely. She couldn't wait to get to high school! She sighed and took the plate and left the kitchen.

"What did you want to ask me?" Hinata asked when she was gone. She was packing up the things to be washed.

"Right. Your family is one of the traditional ones right? Been here since the beginning and things passed down since forever?" he asked

"Yea. My family loves tradition. It's weird sometimes." she answered.

"Ok. Does your family have a fighting style?"

"Yes." she said slowly then looking at him over her shoulder asked: "Doesn't yours?"

"Good. Yea we're all trained in it. Are you?" he answered with a serious expression.

"Yes." she answered. She was wondering where this was going more with each question.

"Good. How good are you?" he continued ignoring the questioning look she was giving him.

"...Not very." she answered thinking about her dismal trials at defeating her own sister. Yea, she wasn't that good but Hanabi was good. Coming back from her thoughts she saw Sasuke giving her a calculating look.

"I'd like to test that." he said and Hinata frowned.

"Why?" she asked.

"You know what I'm caught in Hinata." he said referring to Hebi. She nodded getting the message. "You have to be able to defend yourself very well."

She nodded again. She understood what he meant. This was important. "When?"

"Now would be good. Do you have a place?"

"Of course. The dojo." she told him only thinking fleetingly of how many times she had lost there. Her father was still disappointed at her progress or rather lack thereof.

"Lead the way." Sasuke said and she nodded again. She put the last plate to dry before drying her hands and leading hum out. They walked out of the house and to the outside dojo building ignorant of the eyes watching them from the second floor den window.

Hinata lead him in the building and stood to the side as he took in the floor. She was suddenly nervous. She sucked at this. Sasuke stood on the floor watching her where she was still standing.

"Come on." he told her. He watched her hesitate for a moment before stepping onto the floor with him. "Relax. I just want to see your strength and make you stronger."

"I know. I just really suck at this." she said and Sasuke walked closer to her.

"Then we'll make you better." he said giving her the motion to get to it. "Let's do this. I just want to make sure you'll be fine."

"Yea." she said nodding. She slipped into the well-practised stance of the Byakugan. Sasuke stepped back and assumed his own stance. Hinata showed him her best. She was ok but she could be so much better.

"You need to calm down, focus and push. Think clearly and attack with precision."

"You don't do that."

"No but Itachi does and it works for him. Brute force works better for me." Sasuke answered not mentioning that Itachi always won. He settled into his stance again. "Let's do this again."

From by the door, out of view, Hiashi watched as this boy tried to make his daughter stronger. He was obviously going easy on her but hard enough to push her. If he was really trying to make her stronger then he was alright. It helped that Neji approved of him. But damn it she was his daughter.

XXXXX

"I can't believe this shit!" Kankuro's voice could be heard from under the hood of the Sabaku truck. It had stopped working yet again. Kankuro was busily trying to fix it with small help from Gaara. Hinata was seated on their veranda watching them work with a smile.

"Ignore them. They'll probably be cursing that thing ten million ways before they fix it." Temari said when she returned with four glasses of chocolate milkshake on a tray. She handed Hinata a glass before bringing two to her brothers. They drank it thirstily and handed her the empty glasses before she was able to step away. She glared daggers at them but took the glasses and headed in anyway. She returned with her own glass and sat beside Hinata on the veranda.

"What were you saying about Sasuke?" she asked after her first sip.

"He's training me."

"In what? For what?"

"Fighting? To get stronger?"

"Why?"

"The world is dangerous."

He's not beating you up is he

"No. I wish he was." Hinata Sid and Temari gave her a look over the top of her glass. I mean I wish he was a little harsher with me. I'd probably learn more."

"Your dad used the harsher method and you didn't learn much. Maybe a lighter method would be good for you." Temari offered resting the half-finished milkshake on the small glass table nearby.

Hinata giggled. "You have a milkstache."

"You know them girls love my 'stache." Temari said fanning her face with a grin. She licked her lips. "Bet you wanted to lick that 'stache."

"Do I even want to know what you two are talking about?" Kankuro asked giving them both weird looks as he passed them to get into the house.

"You would die to know the juicy tales we have." Temari told him moving to hug Hinata to her with a seductive look.

"Ew Temari. Your weird." he said in a disgusted tone before smiling widely at Hinata. "Don't worry Hinata, Temari's cooties are not contagious."

"And you're an idiot." Temari called after him as he left. Hinata giggled some more at their antics. Temari's face suddenly lit up as she remembered something. "Hey! Did I tell you about the date I have next Friday?"

"No."

"I've got a date with the goalkeeper!" she said happily and Hinata smiled with her. "I asked him at Naruto's party."

"That's great. Shikamaru is a really nice guy." Hinata said as Temari reached for her glass again.

"Yea and cute."

"The Nara? Seriously?" Kankuro asked snatching Temari's drink. He finished it in one gulp before Temari even realised he snatched her glass. He might have succeeded in returning the glass to her hand if she hadn't jumped up and slapped him topside the head before snatching her glass and stomping back into the house. Kankuro rolled his eyes and reached over to tug Hinata's hair a little. "She's sooo an alien."

"That's not nice." Hinata told him. He shrugged.

"Your hair is cute by the way." Kankuro told her smiling. He started to head back out to the pick-up. "Don't cut it or at least don't cut it any shorter than that."

"Ok." she muttered. Her hair was longer now since it hadn't been cut in practically two months. It probably needed a trim now.

"Jerk." Temari grumbled as she returned with another glass of milkshake. "We are entering the party season Hinata."

"We have exams to study for."

"No way." Temari said instantly.

"You have to study." Hinata told her.

"I will if you ask nicely." she said pouting.

"Please study."

"...Fine."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Exams were a sure way to a headache for many people. Sasuke was sure Hinata was probably having it rough. She had to get excellent grades on the end of term exams. He did too but he didn't really have to push that hard to get the kind of grades his father wanted. He was certain he had aced all the exams he had done so far. Because of the stress that Hinata was probably under to study he wanted to take her out. He wanted to remove some of that stress from her. That led to his current dilemma. He could not think of anywhere he could take her and so had ended up having to turn to the one person who would help him with only a smirk as payment. Now he stood before Itachi's door cursing his own disability to choose a place. Of course there were other people he could she but asking his mother would lead to squeals and incessant chattering, his father would have merely asked him why he would even think to ask him, Naruto would suggest ramen and Neji would question him on his reasons. A mere smirk was definitely better.

"Hello brother." Itachi said when Sasuke entered his room after knocking. He was laid out on his bed with a book before him. It was one of the rare moments he chose to revise. Having his little brother interrupt him was of no consequence to him. Sasuke looked uncomfortable though he hid it well and so he knew instantly that his brother was here to ask for something. He smiled slightly. "What can I do for you?"

"I want to take Hinata out. Where should I take her?"

"No ideas of you own. Shame." Itachi stated chuckling lightly at Sasuke's glare. "Go into the trunk and take out the yellow cylinder."

"Itachi's Trunk of Wonders." Sasuke grumbled but moved to the closet and opened the trunk. The first thing he saw was a roman warrior costume with the helmet onto. He looked over his shoulder at his brother who merely shrugged. He rolled his eyes. Things Itachi kept in his trick of wonders were early things to be wondered at. He found the cylinder next to the costume and pulled it out.

"Open it and take one." Itachi told him. Sasuke opened it and saw that it was filled with papers. He took one and read it.

"It's a coupon." he stated looking at his brother. "A coupon for free sanitary napkins."

"Ah." Itachi said thoughtfully. "Chose another one then. I know I have restaurants in there."

"You have a coupon collection." Sasuke stated after looking at a few at the top.

"Yes. They are useful for moments like this." Itachi stated with a small frown before asking. "Would you rather look at business cards or would you rather go think up your own idea?"

"I am fine with coupons." Sasuke answered and Itachi smiled at his oblivious brother when had turned back to the cylinder in his hands. He watched as Sasuke moved to sit on the end of his bed with his back to him as he busily looked at coupons. His brother was so adorable sometimes, doing something sweet for his girlfriend. Itachi wondered if he realised that he hadn't done anything like this for any of his past girlfriends. It was cute how he thought about Hinata differently and didn't even realise it. Itachi reached up to pull Sasuke's head backwards to bend him awkwardly so that he could see his brother's face. Sasuke glared at him.

"This better be good." Sasuke growled. He was not comfortable to be bent like this. Itachi opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a loud bang downstairs.

"MIKO-MOMMY!" was clearly heard from down there causing both boys to freeze.

"Tobi." the brothers muttered with narrowed eyes. Itachi let go of Sasuke's hair and Sasuke sat up properly with a scowl on his face. He growled before replacing the lid on the cylinder and getting up to leave the room.

"I'm going to lock myself in." he told Itachi sure that the other boy did not want to see Tobi right now either. He was just three steps away from his room when Tobi suddenly popped up the stairs.

"Sasuke!" Tobi exclaimed when he saw him. Sasuke was about to make a dash for his room but Tobi was faster and quickly closed the distance to the door to stand before Sasuke blocking his path. Sasuke gave him a flat look. "Guess what? Tobi entered the school raffle and won! You wanna know what Tobi won?"

"No. Not at all."

"Tobi won tickets to play paintball!" the older Uchiha continued excitedly before Sasuke was even properly finished. "And guess what? Tobi is giving Sasuke two tickets! Take Bunny with you!"

Sasuke stared wide eyed at Tobi who held two tickets in his hands and was grinning like a loon. He took the two tickets slowly.

"...Thanks." he said finally making Tobi grin even wider.

"You're welcome!" he said before skipping off to Itachi's room.

Sasuke now had somewhere to take Hinata.

When Sasuke thought about taking Hinata to the paintball place, he didn't think they would end up going with Tobi and Zetsu and Itachi and Kisame. Apparently Tobi had won six tickets and Itachi had 'randomly' picked the date and time their group would be going. As if. He obviously I'd this on purpose but Hinata was just excited to be going so he wasn't going to say anything. At least not until he could get his hands around Itachi's neck without alerting anyone to his motives.

Hinata on the other hand was happy and smiling. It was her first time going to play paintball. He planned to make it as fun for her as possible.

"Teams!" Tobi said excitedly as they proceeded and instantly grabbed Zetsu's arm to him. "Zetsu is on Tobi's team!"

"Two teams only." Itachi said with a slight smile as they made their way to the changing area to be padded up.

"I'm with Itachi." Kisame said instantly.

"Well I'm with Hinata." Sasuke stated.

"Two teams Sasuke."

"Don't care." he said stubbornly.

Itachi and Kisame looked at each other with raised brows before looking back at the pair. "Well then," Itachi began.

"Hinata is ours!" Kisame completed for him as he threw Hinata over his shoulder and ran off with her. Sasuke stared after them in shock for a moment before he actually processed what was happening.

"Hey!" he exclaimed ready to sprint after them but suddenly Tobi was wrapped around him like a monkey and Zetsu was standing before him.

"Yay! Tobi gets Sasuke!" the elder Uchiha said happily clinging to him from behind.

"Just great." Sasuke grumbled trying to shake his cousin off of him.

Hinata was blushing deeply by the time Kisame finally put her down. He had just picked her up so easily and so suddenly and ran off with her. Itachi was following behind at a slower pace with their weapons. Kisame was grinning widely when he put her down.

"Now we have you all to ourselves." he said excitedly Itachi armed him with one of the paintball guns and handed another to Hinata. He already had his in hand.

"This is how it goes." he said looking at each of them. "We are going to end them. Shoot to kill and don't miss the target ever. Be sure to keep out of sight."

"Ok." Hinata answered before looking at the paint ball gun in her arms curiously. "One question: Do I just pull the trigger?"

"Pretty much." Kisame said while nodding before continuing. "Just take aim first but since it's your first time and you'll probably have no aim just firing in the general direction and hope you hit might work."

"Ok. I'm ready then." Hinata said determined. Both Itachi and Kisame smiled at her. There proceeded to lead her around the area. During this Itachi disappeared and Hinata was left with Kisame. They snooped along slowly, peeping around corners looking for the enemy. Soon they heard the sound of one of the guns firing and paint splattering followed by a shout a short distance away. Kisame was on the move instantly. Hinata trailed after him watching the rear. A shadow jumped across over them and Hinata only vaguely made out Itachi's pony-tail to know it was him. Soon there was move gunfire in the direction Itachi had run to. They were about to turn into another corner when Zetsu came up behind. Hinata saw him just in time to fire but missed. Zetsu immediately opened fire making Hinata and Kisame jump behind the obstacles to avoid them. Kisame aimed his gun around the corner without looking and fired away. When he peeked around they were surprised to see that he only got hit twice in one arm. Suddenly he and Kisame were having their own fire fight.

Hinata had just looked away from them when she spotted Tobi skipping towards them happily swinging his paintball gun by his side. Hinata tried to make herself smaller before even attempting to fire at him. Hinata watched in almost slow motion as he conveniently tilted his head at the last minute for the paint to narrowly miss his head.

'No way.' she thought as she watched him raise his gun with his smile still plastered on his face. When he pulled the trigger Hinata expected to be assaulted with paint even as she also pulled her trigger, eyes squeezed shut.

"Shit!" she heard Kisame curse from behind her. Then it stopped and she cracked her eyes open. She hadn't been shot. Tobi stood where he had been still smiling and with only one spot of paint on him in a non-lethal area: a finger on his free hand. He jumped over and bent to bring his face closer to hers.

"Bunnies shouldn't he shot at. They've done nothing wrong." he said with a pout as he cupped her face but avoiding touching her with the painted finger. "Guns aren't something they should play with either."

She stared after him as he skipped off calling for his Vinnie the Vine to come with him over his shoulder. Zetsu slinked around to their side treated her with a snarl and followed him away only pausing for a moment to shoot Kisame on the foot.

While Hinata had remained untouched Kisame had been shot repeatedly and had paint all over him. He smiled at her.

"No worries. It's always hard to hit Tobi even when he's not moving." he said pushing himself up from the floor. "I swear that guy uses magic or something. Or he's got super powers like intangibility. Just like I swear Itachi can read minds or mess with people's minds some times."

"Are you out of the game now?" she asked getting off the ground too.

"For now. I'll still watch your back though." he said winking at her.

"Let's end Sasuke now." she said and he stared at her.

"I would hug you right now but that would kick you out of the game too." he said brightly. "Let's go."

To say Sasuke was surprised to see a paint covered Kisame so early the game was an understatement. He had expected him to last longer. He was more surprised through when he stepped aside to reveal his girlfriend of close to three months pointing her paintball gun. He realised too late that he had lowered his defences at Kisame not being a threat but being lost. Before he could even point the gun her first shot hit. He didn't stand a chance after that. It was rapid fire from her, Kisame holding him in place and excessive laughter from both of them. When he could finally move and not cringe from hits. He looked at her smiling shyly at him with a flushed face and a half cocked gun in hand. He playfully glared at her before raising his empty arms.

"My dying wish is for your affection. Hug me and share in my paint beloved." he proclaimed and she laughed nervously as she processed what he said. The moment it clicked and she took a step back he lunged for her but was caught in a bear hug from Kisame.

"My affection will have to do mini Uchiha."

"I am not a mini Uchiha." Sasuke growled trying to get away from Kisame.

"You're right. You're the Uchiha mini." Kisame told him and he glared as best he could from that odd angle at the larger male. Hinata giggled from a few steps away.

"No! Little cuz!" Tobi's voice called from behind the group of them. They spun to see him standing not far off with Zetsu.

"Where were they when I needed them?" Sasuke growled just as Kisame muttered: "What could they have been off doing now?"

They looked at each other thoughtfully before Sasuke pushed away and Kisame let him go. "I don't want to know." they agree.

Hinata looked at them quizzically having missed what was said before. Sasuke waved it off and Kisame smiled at her.

"Sorry Bunny but it looks like I'm going to have to end you." Tobi said with a sigh and a shrug. He raised his paintball gun at her with a smile. "No hard feelings."

At that moment four persons opened fire and four persons got shot. Hinata and Kisame were shot across the chest by Tobi. Hinata and Kisame fired on Tobi and Zetsu and Zetsu was hit. Tobi was shot by Itachi who had suddenly appeared standing above Tobi and Zetsu on the wall structures. He smirked down at them.

"My team wins." he said with a victorious smile. He was still paint free while everyone else had some splattered on them. Kisame cheered loudly and Zetsu saw fit to execute retribution. From there the game became a free-for-all.

Sasuke took it upon himself while they were finally changing out of the gear to help Hinata out of hers a little away from the group of them. He helped her to keep any paint that had not yet dried away from her hair before running his fingers through it to make sure. She was blushing at him slightly through her lashes.

"Thank you." she said doing away at his latches. He raised a questioning brow at her giving her hair one more comb through because it was soft and she was beautiful. He couldn't help it. "For trying to take my mind of exams and school for a bit. I really had fun even if you hadn't planned for them to come along it was still fun."

"You're welcome. I had fun too even if you shot me. Repeatedly." he told her pulling off the last of the gear. She was really blushing now. She had been very vicious when there were no longer any teams. She had shot him the most out of everyone else.

"Sorry." she said nervously fiddling with her fingers a little. He cupped her cheek in a hand lightly making her raise her eyes to his. He smiled softly at her.

"It's alright. I can handle it." he said comfortingly before leaning forward to kiss her. Their eyes closed they missed the quick picture Itachi snapped with his phone from beside a smirking Kisame. He captured perfectly the sweet sincerity of it including the soft blush still present on Hinata and lovingly soft hold Sasuke had on her. It was perfect.

Hinata couldn't help thinking at that moment that maybe she didn't just like Sasuke a lot. That maybe it was something more than that.

Several days later found Hinata smiling brightly as she stepped out of her final exam for the term. They were final over now and the school trip the next day would be the last day before holidays. The whole day had been good. She had woken up in a good mood, had a good lunch and happily hung out with Temari and Ten-ten. She was actually excited to see Sasuke. She only had a few more minutes to wait before seeing him. He didn't have exams today and so would be coming from him.

Usually he was early so it was a little odd that his car wasn't already parked outside or that he wasn't there leaning on it as he waited. She brushed it off as the anomaly to prove the point, maybe he was busy or got side tracked. He had been at home all day. She went to sit on a bench under a tree near the parking lot in front of the school.

She didn't have much longer to wait because soon she saw his car enter the school grounds. She smiled brightly as it approached and stopped close to her. She was just rising up her feet when she saw Sasuke get out of the car and approach her.

"Hey Sasuke." she greeted him happily with a smile.

"Hinata." he said coolly causing Hinata to raise a brow at him. She hadn't heard that tone on him for a while now. "We're breaking up."

"What?" she asked almost stumbling. She couldn't have heard right. There was no way.

"Really Hinata? I know you're not deaf." he said folding his arms and almost rolling his eyes.

"Wha-Why?" she asked. Her confusing was evident on her face. This was the least of all the things she had expected to hear this day. This could not be happening.

"Don't tell me you didn't expect this?" Sasuke said as if it was the simplest thing in the world. At her still confused look he smirked at her sadistically. "You didn't? How could you not. I mean, look how Naruto turned out. Dumped after three months. We didn't quite make it to three but oh well. Don't think I could go much longer."

Hinata stared horrified at him. Beneath the tightness of her chest she could feel the sharp stab of emotional agony pierce her heart creating one big crack in her just finally fully healed heart.

"Lost your voice now? Well no problem. I don't really want to hear anything from you on this." he said seemingly losing interesting the whole thing. A look of distaste underlay this bored look. Just this look and the fact that he wasn't even looking at her anymore brought tears to her eyes even as the words sunk in. When he turned those disgusted eyes on her, her heart finally cracked in two driving a rift in her chest like to other. "Avoid me."

With those parting words he spun away from her got in his car and left leaving her soulless and empty at the front on the school.

"Don't. Cry." she muttered to herself trying to hold in the rears as her trebling hands tried to call her driver.

It was quick and painful. That's what it was.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

That night all Hinata could do was lie in her bed devastated and numb to the world. The break-up swam around in her head plaguing her. Being unable to cry she lay eyes wide open unable to sleep because of the rift in her heart. No amount of music could console her. No amount of anything. She hadn't even changed out of her clothes when she got home.

She had really thought that maybe this was more than it had been for her years of crushing on Naruto. This hurt worse than Naruto dumping her for Ino had. He hadn't even really told her why. Was it just because he could? Was it all just to mess with her in the first place? Well congratulations she was officially messed up now. There was no way she was going out with anyone else ever. She wasn't even going to look at another popular or good looking guy with a good thought ever. Those guys were over-rated. They could all die for all she cared. Naruto could go die. Sasuke could go die. They could all go die. Except for Neji. He was a good guy. He wouldn't do that to anybody. Neither would Kiba. He was always nice. So was Shino. They could be best friends and sit and talk about bugs. Maybe Shino was onto something, bugs didn't break people's hearts.

Her thoughts had cycled round and round all night but it always cane back to the break-up. Always. It was almost four in the morning when she got out of bed to bathe ignoring the mirror as she passed it. It was a listless bath that did nothing to help her. The comfort of her home clothes were lost on her but then she finally managed a few hours of sleep.

She woke to a quiet house but that was expected. When she finally left her room it was late enough that her father had already gone to work and Neji was gone to school for his class trip. She had told them the night before that she would not be going because she wasn't feeling well. Hanabi was still in her room. She had gotten holidays days before and it was too early for her to be up.

Hinata had just found cold leftovers from her forgotten and untouched dinner from the night before and was in her way to fling herself into the living room couch to turn on the television to stare at it without really seeing it when the doorbell rang catching her in the hall just opposite it. She stood staring at it bleakly hoping it was finish. It ran again and she sighed before resting her plate the side/hall table. She ignored the hall mirror as she approached the door. She just hoped this wouldn't take long.

She pulled the door open as the bell began to ring again. Whoever it was, was impatient. She froze when she saw who it was.

"Hinata! Thank God!" Itachi exclaimed the moment he saw her. He frowned at her appearance. "What happened to you?"

Before she could snap at him that it was his brother, he took her free arm in his saying: "Never mind that. We have to go. Sasuke's in the hospital."

A shot of panic ran through but she shoved it down and pulled her arm away. "No."

"What?"

"I'm not going."

"Why not? He's in the hospital."

"I doubt he wants to see me since he dumped me yesterday." she said coldly and watched as Itachi's eyes widened in shock and his mouth hung open a little. "He was quite clear about it."

"That freaking fucking idiot!" Itachi almost shouted kicking his foot against the wall. She grabbed Hinata by her shoulders to get her to look at him. "Listen to me Hinata. Look at me and listen to me clearly. It's a lie. He was lying and he's a complete idiot to do it and he freaking hurt you but he's lying."

"Don't lie to me Itachi." Hinata said trying to shrug away from him. He held her firmly in place. "He said it himself. 'Avoid me.' Doesn't have to tell me twice."

Itachi cursed again "I'm not lying Hana." he said softly. "He's such an idiot but I know he's lying and I'm not I promise. You have to come. We have to fix this."

"No. I'm not going there. I'm not going anywhere near him. Ever!"

"You have to!"

"No!"

"Hinata he's gonna need you."

"I don't care."

"He lied Hinata. He doesn't hate you or even dislike you. He really any honestly cares. I swear he does."

"Just leave it Itachi. I'm not going no matter what you say." she said tiredly about to close the door.

"Fine. I don't know what's wrong with that moron anyway." Itachi said stopping the door before pulling her out and slamming it shut. He threw her over his shoulder. "But you're coming with us anyway."

"What? No! Put me down!" Hinata shouted kicking at him and trying to get away. He continued walking towards the Hummer in the driveway as if she was saying anything or moving. Kisame was already opening the door to the back seat for them.

"You are going with us and we're going to fix this or so help me god I'm going to kill him." Itachi said darkly before throwing her into the backseat. Kisame quickly slammed the door shut behind her. After a hard bounce on the seat Hinata immediately tried to get the door to open again but failed. She tried the other door and failed. They were both child-locked. She tried to get the windows to roll down but those were locked too. By that time Kisame and Itachi were already in their seats and Itachi had already begun to move. She slumped into the seat numbly. They had so easily taken her.

"I swear Kisame, I'm going to kill that little brat!" she heard Itachi snarl. He was dripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white. "You better hide my knife or I'm going to stab him on sight."

"I already did, the moment you started to actually look angry." Kisame told him calmly. One of them had to remain calm. On the rare occasions that Itachi was the one who lost it, that job fell to Kisame. Whatever it was that made Itachi this angry, Kisame didn't want to know.

"Good or I'd have one less brother." Itachi said still snarling.

"You wouldn't have a brother." Kisame stated easily.

"Do you know what that Idiot did?"

"Don't think I want to especially if you're calling him a capital idiot now." was Kisame's reply. Hinata was starting to think they might have forgotten her.

"That idiotic moronic fool is going to die a very painful death." Itachi grumbled under his breath. Kisame rolled his eyes before turning to look at Hinata.

"Do you want some juice Hinata? You don't look so good." he said eying her critically. Itachi was still grumbling to himself angrily. "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

"I was just about to." she answered. They just kidnapped her and their offering her juice? Juice? Kisame sighed and handed her a bottle.

"It's a fruit blend my mom made. It's real good for you." he said.

There was silence as after that and Hinata noticed for the first time that Itachi was definitely speeding. She sipped the juice quietly thinking about everything Itachi had said so far.

"What makes you think he's lying?" she asked.

"He cares too much for you for him to just cut you lose so viciously." he said and Hinata saw Kisame clench his fist at the implications of that sentence. He said nothing. Hinata didn't contest what Itachi said. He might think that but that doesn't mean that's really how it is. Hinata knew what she heard and felt and the words of Itachi couldn't change that.

"What happened to him anyway?" she asked quietly.

"The hospital says he was held up, beat up and robbed last night but I don't think that's it." Itachi said a small bit of worry peeking through his anger. Sasuke was still his brother after all.

"Doesn't matter. He doesn't want to see me and I don't want to see him." Hinata said but she was getting slightly worried. She was still angry and hurt but she would blame her heart for actually still caring a little. She felt stupid for it but she couldn't help it. It just made her angrier at herself. She zoned out from Itachi's pleas for her to listen and his angry comments geared towards Sasuke to think about what she would do. She obviously could not get away.

She was so lost in thought that she missed the rest of the ride and when they turned into the hospital parking lot. She was brought out of her thoughts by Kisame tapping her on the arm from the door he had opened for her. He helped her out and walked with her into the hospital. Itachi was already there. He had found out the room they needed and was waiting on them. They quickly found the room and they pulled Hinata in before she could protest.

The first thing Hinata noticed was that he had an arm in a cast. His ankle was in a sprain cast. She felt vague satisfaction when he turned his head to look at them. There was a dark bruise mating his usually pale skin. The moment he saw her, his brow furrowed.

"Don't you even open that sewage pipe." Itachi threatened and even Hinata felt the stab of fury in that statement. Everyone was silent as he read Sasuke's chart. "You're lucky you don't have a second stab wound now. My personal knife plunge. There ain't no doctor who could have saved you from that one."

"You have work to do. You might have come close to dying last night but you came even closer a few minutes ago." Kisame warned cracking his knuckles.

"You have work to do. Talk to her properly, no lies. We had to kidnap her to get her here." Itachi snarled applying pressure to Sasuke's side in the area that he had been wounded. The younger Uchiha winced then glared up at his brother. "I will end you if you don't."

With that final warning Itachi took Kisame and left. The silence became sickening from there. Neither of them spoke. Hinata was nervous and Sasuke seemed to be at a loss of what to do. Hinata hesitantly took a step toward the bed and Sasuke watched her curious but weary.

"Is it true?" she asked. Her face betrayed no emotion and her eyes burned into his. He furrowed his brow in thought for a moment to remember what Itachi said. The more he thought about it he realised that Itachi knew. If Itachi knew then he was certainly dead if he screwed up."

"...Yes." he answered quietly not wanting to meet her eyes but he couldn't look away now.

"Why?"

"Hebi." he answered simply before finally looking away with a frown. "It's getting worse. They are planning something but they aren't telling anyone. Even the inner circle doesn't know. The only person who probably knows other than the boss is his right hand. The gang is a lot more active and it's not good."

That didn't exactly answer Hinata's question but she decides to leave it for now. She looked down at his body at the wounds and bruises that she could see. It was obvious that he had been in a fight.

"What happened?" she asked and he looked up at her frowning. He couldn't lie though.

"Kabuto." he said and she frowned

"Kabuto as in Kabuto? As in Kabuto Yakushi the biology teacher?" she asked surprised and Sasuke nodded.

"The boss' right hand." he told her and watches as it sunk in that one of their teachers was in the gangs. It had never occurred to her that one of them could be. Kabuto didn't seem to even be the type to be involved in gangs.

"What happened?" she asked again. His teeth clenched at the implication that her biology teacher put her boyfriend- right ex-boyfriend, here. He sighed putting his thoughts together before he began to speak.

_FLASHBACK_

_Sasuke looked up from his searching when Kabuto made a sound of triumph. Kabuto had found the 'thing.' He placed it into his inner jacket pocket and motioned to Sasuke that they should leave now. They were almost to the door when they heard voices from below. They instantly knew that they couldn't be caught. They had to get out now but they couldn't go back the way they came._

_"Fire-escape." Kabuto suggested. Sasuke nodded and they both moved towards the side of the room lined with windows. Sasuke looked through one that was open and had no frame and spotted the fire-escape at the next window. He was just about to announce this before suddenly he was pushed forwards and out the window: the third storey window. Frigging Kabuto!_

_The only thing that saved him was that he barely managed to grab the end of the fire-escape on the way down but that jarred his shoulder/arm out of its socket. He managed to grab hold a little lower with his other arm and fell the rest of the way, landing with only a sprained ankle and a small scrape from the landing. He glared upwards through the pain of his shoulder to see Kabuto making his way safely down the fire-escape. The bastard had pushed him! He tried to kill him! Sasuke out that aside for the moment because yelling at him from there would just get them caught and he had more pressing issues to deal with, like his arm._

_He inhaled deeply pushing away the pain and gripped his arm to force his shoulder back into place. He grunted at the new pain but stood still as he got over it and waited on Kabuto. He massaged his ankle softly and tested his weight on it before Kabuto finally stood before him. A disinterested was all he got from Kabuto ad he looked him over._

_"You're going to pay for that. You tried to kill me." Sasuke said levelling a glare at Kabuto._

_"Just testing the famed Uchiha tenacity. You gotta be tough." Kabuto said smiling at him. It hid his sadism almost perfectly but Sasuke knew it was there. "Let's go. Run!"_

_He was off down the deserted street instantly. Sasuke ran after him as best he could with his ankle not fully healed. They were close to getting to the main road because of the short cut they had taken when they caught up to them. The other guys from the building quickly surrounded them. Kabuto and Sasuke watched wearily. One of them flicked out a knife and instantly Kabuto had a scalpel with a razor sharp edge in hand. They charged the two and Kabuto instantly attacked with a slash of his scalpel. Sasuke waited until the last moment before bringing his fist up to slam viciously into the first ones chin simultaneously pushing him into the other. From there the fight got bloody real quick. Kabuto managed to cut his attacker a few times but they were only small lacerations. Meanwhile Sasuke was working double hard to fend off the two attacking him. He was doing fine considering he wasn't at his best but it couldn't last forever._

_Just as Kabuto had succeeded in disarming his attacker, Sasuke delivered a high kick to the first guy and spun to punch the other in the face with a follow up to his gut. It wasn't until that guy fell to the ground that he heard the clatter of another knife. The first guy was attending to sneak up behind him but Sasuke quickly dispatched of him with a complicated move but not without injury to his arm from the move that his attacker had used. It didn't feel broken but it was pretty close to it._

_"Let's get out of here!" the other guy said scrambling up from the ground. They quickly ran off but not before Kabuto got in one last quick slash. They watched them leave and Kabuto turned to Sasuke with a calculating look when the teen groaned in pain after taking a step forward. Sasuke felt for the shot of burning pain in his side and pulled away with wet fingers coated with blood._

_"Shit."_

_"Indeed." Kabuto commented but made no move towards him. He was still watching him with a calculating look in his eyes. "I think it's time we test that Uchiha perseverance that they pride so much."_

_"What?" Sasuke asked_

_"It's only a few more blocks to the main. Let's go." Kabuto said turning to walk away. Sasuke stared at him._

_"No way in hell." Sasuke growled following at a slower pace. His side hurt badly. Obviously the wound wasn't critical but if not treated now it would be. A few blocks could be the end of him and this bastard who was supposed to be a doctor was going to make him walk to test some shit. It wasn't as if Kabuto didn't have the tools. He always had his tools. He had already attempted to kill him earlier so this must be a second chance for him._

_Sasuke didn't get much further before the wooziness finally set in and he was having problems staying upright. Kabuto glanced back at him a few times to check his progress._

_"Just two more now Sasuke." Kabuto taunted._

_"I'm going... to end you." Sasuke told him. Not two steps later he stopped sliding himself down the wall he was leaning on._

_"You'd have to survive first, now wouldn't you?" Kabuto said looking him over again. He approached slowly. "Can't move anymore. You made it further than I thought you would."_

_"Eat shit." Sasuke snarled adjusting himself. Kabuto squared before him and Sasuke grew uncomfortable at his closed off look. "Are... you going to... fix this now?"_

_"Actually," Kabuto said as he began shuffling around in Sasuke's pockets until he found his wallet and phone. "I'm going to take these and call you an ambulance. That should take about fifteen to twenty minutes to get here." he looked Sasuke over one last time. "The question is: can you last that long?"_

_"You... shit head... bastard." Sasuke called after him._

_"Not so creative when you're bleeding out, are you?" he taunted with a look over his shoulder. He had his phone in hand by then. "Ta."_

_FLASHBACK_

"I don't remember much after that." Sasuke admitted with a sigh. She had been silent all through. She wasn't even looking at him.

"Do you want to stay in Hebi?" Hinata asked after a moment of silence. He looked up at her before answering.

"No. Not in a long while but I can't just leave. I'm only out if I'm dead. This is dangerous stuff and if the boss even thought that I didn't want to be there any more I'd be in deep shit." he said thinking about what might happen to Hinata if Orochimaru decided that whatever he did to him wasn't enough. "I know what I did was stupid and I don't expect you to take me back or even forgive me. I just hope you understand why I did it because if you did take me back or forgive me, you'd be stupid."

"I guess I'm stupid then." she muttered after a moment of silence. At his surprised look she said clearly: "I haven't forgiven you. I might but I haven't yet." Sasuke's eyes widened at this. "We will find a way with Hebi."

"We?" he asked brow furrowed. He watched puzzled as she leaned over him to whisper in his ear in a quietly dangerous tone: "Lie to me again and I'll destroy you."

He watched as she pulled away and left without a backward glance. Maybe he wasn't completely doomed. Maybe.

Hinata left the room with mixed feelings. She saw his logic but that didn't mean she agreed or that liked how it felt to have her heart ripped out second time. She didn't understand how the Kabuto could do those things but she could understand why Sasuke wanted out. She could see the logical stuff but the emotional stuff was harder. She was going to stick by her decision though.

"Hinata!" a familiar voice called and Hinata looked up to see Mikoto. Standing beside her with an arm around her was Fugaku. Mikoto looked like had been crying. She pulled away from her husband to go and hug Hinata. "How are you? Are you ok? Is he ok? Is my baby ok?"

"He's fine Mrs Uchiha."

"Mikoto dear." she corrected and Hinata nodded. Fugaku put a hand on his wife's head, patting it before settling there, and with a nod to Hinata swept his wife away to see their son. Hinata looked over at Itachi.

"Can I go back home now?" she asked and Itachi nodded. He led her out to the car and drove her home. Her mind was on thoughts of that morning and Sasuke and everything he had told her. What would she do? What could she do?

Her thoughts were finally pulled away from the sidling mass of confusion when then stopped in front of the house. Hanabi rushed out of the house clearly worried as soon as she saw it was her sister. She waved goodbye to Itachi as he drove away realising only belatedly that Kisame hadn't cone with them.

"What happened?" Hanabi asked worried and Hinata looked at her sister. Confiding in her would help more than keeping it all in right? But maybe not everything. Not to her sister at least.

"I went to the hospital." she began.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY! Writers block be gone! I can finally write again! No school to hinder the process either! We can finally progress once more. Here, beloved people, is the new chapter. Short but here none the less.

Chapter 19

After an entire week of the hospital and his mother's fussing, Sasuke was happy that he was finally going to be released. He was finally putting on some of his clothes that had been brought over for him. This was the moment he had been waiting for since he woke up in the hospital.

Another low part of his stay was that Hinata didn't come to visit once after that first time. She was obviously still angry with him. He couldn't blame her though. He wouldn't want to talk to him either. He had been particularly vicious. He had hurt her immensely, it hurt them both. He hadn't wanted to do it but it felt like the right thing to do even if it would've hurt them both. That had been the reasoning behind it all. Hinata had come around and changed it and now he had a second chance. He most definitely was not going to mess this up. Not a second time.

The only problem now was if Hinata would pay him any attention. There was no way he could push her. Sure she said, indirectly, that she would take him back but she hadn't talked to him or anything since then so maybe she wasn't ready to see him yet. She had to make the first move or he might just mess up everything all over again. He wasn't sure he could live with that.

"Sasuke." Itachi called just as Sasuke had finish pulling on his cargo pants with his good arm. His arm was still in a cast. He looked up and over to his brother who was leaned in the doorway to his hospital room. Why had they sent him to pick him up? "Ready?"

"Um... Shoelace?" Sasuke said looking down at the shoes on the floor by his socked feet. He had been able to pull them on one handed but how did these people expect him to tie his laces with one hand. He was skilled but not that kind of skilled. He was irritated and embarrassed to think he had to ask his brother for help. For help? He blushed slightly when he saw the evil smirk that Itachi showed him but his brother said nothing as he approached him. He motioned for him to sit on the bed before kneeling before him to put the shoes on and tie the laces. It was embarrassing. Especially with the smirk that wouldn't leave Itachi's face as he worked. He felt like he was four again. Back then Itachi used to always tie his laces like this.

"Adorable little invalid." Itachi teased as he finished the second shoe. Sasuke glared at him. They both stood and Sasuke followed Itachi out of the room. They had checked out and were almost to the car when he spoke again. "We're going on a trip tomorrow."

"Trip?" Sasuke asked. Itachi had driven their mother's car that Sasuke usually drove, to pick him up.

"Vacation trip." Itachi told him. Sasuke nodded. Their family went on these kinds of trips sometimes. "It's to help you 'recuperate'."

"How long will we be gone? I still have to check the cast over the holidays."

"About a week. We'll be back for Christmas." his brother told him. Sasuke nodded. That would be alright. "It's a joint trip. Kisame is coming. Can you believe dad didn't want to take him? I had to pay for his ticket."

"Why wouldn't he want to pay for Kisame?" Sasuke asked confused. Their father usually took Kisame with them even if it was merely to please Itachi and Mikoto, mostly Mikoto.

"Apparently he was already paying for enough people even though he didn't have to pay for them."

"Who else is coming?" Sasuke asked eyeing Itachi with suspicion.

"The Hyuga's." Itachi said coolly.

'Oh shit.' was Sasuke's first thought Itachi smirked at him. 'What am I going to do?'

XXXXX

Neji had no special thoughts on the trip but Hinata was acting a little weird lately. A little closed off if you asked him. He figured that it was because Sasuke had been in the hospital and she was just worrying too much about him. Hanabi was excited for the trip. He would have to keep an eye on her when they were there. He would have to be the one making sure that she didn't do anything stupid.

Now to play the part of a drill sergeant. His and Hiashi's bags were already in the hall. Hiashi was having a talk with the person that would be looking after the house. Neji jogged up the stairs and into Hanabi's room to see her still deliberating on which shirt to wear. He rolled his eyes and put one back into the closet telling her to wear the other one and get out of the room.

He found Hinata in her room already dressed and ready. She was just standing there staring out through the window lost in her own thoughts. She was so still she almost seemed like a statue except for her breathing. Something was obviously bothering her. He approached her slowly.

"Hinata?" he asked when he was close enough to gently rest a hand on her shoulder. She jolted slightly before looking at her. She looked troubled. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." she answered looking away from his concerned gaze. "Just worried."

Neji eyed her a moment before pulling her to him and wrapping his arms around her in a hug. Her head rested in the crook of his neck. She was surprised that he was actually trying to comfort her with more than just a pat. "He's alright you know."

He didn't know everything but the gesture was enough for Hinata to relax against him and hug him back. He knew her enough to know she was bothered and offer her comfort. She wished she could tell him everything without it resulting in more broken bones. Neji was her brother in everything but blood and so would definitely go on the attack if he knew about the break-up.

"He'll be fine." he told her trying to make her feel better. She gave him one more squeeze before leaning away.

"I know." she told him and smiled at him.

"Good. Now let's go." he said releasing her and taking her suitcase. She smiled and followed him out of the room.

"Children! Move! Now!" Hiashi called from downstairs.

"Coming!" Hanabi called back as she came rushing out of her room lugging her bag behind her. She was half-way down the stairs in the next moment. Neji and Hinata followed her down and out into the waiting car. Their chauffeur for the trip packed the suitcases into the trunk as they got into the car. Hiashi looked them over as they each got in before getting into the passenger seat. They drove in almost complete silence until they got to the airport.

The moment Hinata saw the Uchihas her heart clenched. How Sasuke still manages to look good with a cast and a slightly bothered look was beyond her. It was not fair that he should look good when she was still angry with him. There was a reason she hadn't visited him in the hospital.

It was just her luck that they ended up sitting beside each other for the plane ride. Sitting beside him she became aware that he was actually nervous. She probably wouldn't have realised that had she been elsewhere but that didn't mean she was going to talk to him just yet. It wasn't time yet. She had talked with Ten-ten and Temari about the whole break-up thing, everything about it but not too much about the gang business. Temari had offered to off him instantly while Ten-ten had sat in shock for a moment. They had calmed down after Hinata had explained to them the reasons but they both agreed that she shouldn't forgive him that easily. As if she would. It had hurt too badly to just let him off the hook. She would stand firm in her promise to find a way to help him and after a while she would eventually go back on conditions of course. 'No lies' was on the top of that list. That was business for later though for the moment she was content to ignore Sasuke and hold an odd but highly entertaining conversation with Tobi who was sitting across the aisle from her. If Sasuke was feeling slighted he hid it well.

They arrived at their vacation destination to warm temperature and the promise of lots of water even though at the moment it was night time. After checking into the hotel they would be staying in and found their rooms Hinata flung herself into the bed she had chosen in the room that she was sharing with Hanabi. The flight had tired her out so much she just wanted to fall asleep right then.

"I can't wait to go to the beach!" Hanabi exclaimed pulling Hinata out of her half asleep state. They were already lying in their respective beds. Hinata marvelled at the fact that Hanabi had had the energy to actually change her clothes.

"Me too." Hinata answered sleepily.

"And the guys. You're lucky you have Sasuke." Hanabi continued and Hinata froze. Some luck she had. "He's cool, handsome, smart and not a complete moron like the guys at my school. Plus he actually likes you!"

"Yea." Hinata said with a sigh. She did not want to have this talk now. Not about Sasuke.

"Well. Much flirting for me tomorrow. No vacation is complete without it." Hanabi said with a yawn. Hinata could hear her moving around in her bed. "Night Hinata."

"Good night." Hinata answered and the room became silent. Hinata was quiet for a moment before finally falling asleep.

XXXXX

The next day began with group breakfast. Everyone was present and enjoying the breakfast buffet. They were all seated around one large table that could seat all ten of them. Mikoto and Fugaku were engaged in their own conversation ignoring everyone else even though Mikoto sometimes put extra food in Sasuke's plate. Hanabi was being annoyed to no end by Tobi's constant talking. Hiashi was busy on his IPad working and Neji was talking with Sasuke about football (soccer) and how long it would be before Sasuke could be in a game again. Kisame and Itachi were engaging Hinata in a conversation about speed boats and engines that she knew nothing about but it was interesting to listen to. It was better when they finally switched to cars; that she knew about. She was friends with the Sabaku's and lived with Neji, of course she knew about cars.

After breakfast Hinata went with Kisame to the beach and Sasuke tagged along behind them. Itachi went to the pool alone while Neji and Hanabi went exploring. Fugaku, Mikoto and Hiashi went back to their separate rooms: Hiashi to work and Fugaku and Mikoto for other business. Tobi had simply disappeared.

Sasuke laid himself out on a lounge/lawn chair in the sand with the towels and beach bags. Hinata and Kisame had left their things with him before the older male chased Hinata down to the water. Sasuke was not pleased but there wasn't much he could do about it anyway, she was still angry at him. He wasn't supposed to get the cast wet either so the sand it was. Preferably in shade. He wasn't fooling himself that attempting to tan out there would work for him. He was better off pale with no sun burn. Hinata should be fine sine he had, had the pleasure of watching Kisame apply her sunscreen for her. He had never been more irritated with the man, however he only had one hand that could help with that and that wouldn't have been much help at all.

As things were Hinata was having fun. With Kisame and not him. But still having fun. Sasuke pulled out his literature book from school and started reading. He might as well torture himself.

It was little over an hour later when Itachi joined him in his shades area. He took one look at the book in Sasuke's hand and scowled.

"You're kidding right?" he stated not really expecting an answer. His brother shrugged.

"Where have you been?" Sasuke asked.

"Busy collecting dates." Itachi answered and Sasuke raised a brow at him. "Tomorrow I now have Sara for breakfast, Angelita for after breakfast, Alisha for lunch, Galinea for after lunch, you for dinner and Bianca for after dinner. It goes like that for another day and a half."

"Wow." was Sasuke's only comment.

"I have been busy."

"Do any of these girls have boyfriends?"

"Does it matter?"

"If they are here."

"If they are here and their girlfriends are going out with me obviously they are doing something wrong and their relationship is toast."

"And if this is a plea for attention and for their bf to smash some guys face in?"

"Then they picked the wrong guy."

"Over confident much." Sasuke groused.

"Confident is just fine." Itachi answered lying back and putting his sunglasses on.

"If they have a gang."

"It's a hotel nobody takes an entire gang to a hotel, little brother."

"Brothers. Multiple brothers." Sasuke persisted.

"Then I have Kisame and I'm sure your feet are working fine enough to kick a few."

Sasuke couldn't fault that logic.

XXXXX

Two days later found Hinata lying in the she shade by the beach staring out at the water and listening to her iPod. Sasuke had finally decided to take in some sun and was sitting on the sand near by the water. His cast free hand was playing around in the wet sand.

As she watched him she began to think if what she could do to help. She had been thinking about it ever since she had visited him in the hospital and told him they would find a way to deal with Hebi. She couldn't think of anything that could help.

She was still stick in thought when the words of the song she was listening to finally reached her: 'I wish I was strong enough to lift not one but both of us.'

Then she had an idea that spread a smile across her face. A brilliant idea that would not be accepted gladly but it was now stuck in her head. That Sasuke looked away from the water and towards her did not stop it from seeping into the very crevice of her mind. This was it.

She had to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song referenced is Both of us -B.O.B ft. Taylor swift


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"So how was the trip? Tell us all about it." Ten-ten said immediately after welcoming Hinata back with a hug.

"Did you make Sasuke beg and plead?" Temari asked grinning widely. Hinata giggled at her. Leave it to Temari to ask about payback first.

"No nothing like that." Hinata told her and she pouted. "He did sulk a lot though and glare and was in a generally bad mood."

"Oh do tell." Temari said excitedly and Ten-ten rolled her eyes.

"Gosh Temari. Let her tell us how she wants to tell us." the girl said and Temari then rolled her eyes.

"Thank you." Hinata said smiling. They were all having lunch at Temari's house. They were the only ones home since the boys were gone to work. Gaara at the tattoo parlour and Kankuro with the mechanics for their part time jobs turned full time because of the holidays.

"The trip was great. Father spent most of the days in his room working until we his loving children kicked him out." Hinata began and they chuckled. It was typical behaviour for Hinata's father to always be working. "Sasuke's mom and dad were in their rooms all the time except for dinner but for a totally different reason."

"We know who got some this trip." Temari grinned deviously, eyebrows jumping.

"TMI." Ten-ten shook her head. That was not something she wanted to think about.

"Itachi is apparently a ladies man and dated over a dozen girls throughout the course of the trip. One for each event of each day." Hinata continued.

"Can't blame him; he's smoking." Temari interrupted fanning herself lightly.

"Please tell me Neji wasn't the same." Ten-ten said wincing. "I mean he's a guy I can't expect him not to look but please tell me he didn't go out with any of them."

"No worries. He was a well behaved boy. Girls didn't seem exist to him. Well except for that one girl all the boys were staring at that Itachi went out with." Hinata told her. She hadn't liked that girl at all. Ten-ten nodded relieved. "Anyway, Kisame is the most generous, funny and entertaining guy ever. We hung out everywhere: the beach, the pool, jet skiing, rock climbing and King Kong-ing when we got to the top."

"I'm telling you she's got a mini crush for that guy." Temari told Ten-ten and Hinata blushed.

"I do not." she told them.

"Denial." Ten-ten stated sagely.

"I don't." she denied.

"Sure looks like it." Temari said stroking her chin.

"He's just my best guy friend." Hinata said laughing.

"I'm telling you if it wasn't for Sasuke you would be totally crushing in that guy."

"They are nothing alike." Hinata stated with a small smile.

"Sasuke is the odd one out of your crushes." Temari pointed out

"Naruto and Kisame sound a lot more similar." Ten-ten said and Hinata frowned.

"I am not crushing on Kisame." Hinata said resolutely and the two shrugged. She honestly didn't feel that way about him and he had said more than once that she was too young anyway. He didn't date girls more than four years younger than him. He was twenty-three and she was sixteen, seventeen in a few days. That was more than four years.

"So you hung with Kisame all week. Continue." Temari said

"Yea. Tobi is insane."

"Tobi?" Ten-ten asked

"Sasuke's cousin." Hinata clarified. "I knew he was a little crazy because he talks in third person and acts like a kid. The guy is obsessed with cookies and dive bombed off the pool supply building. He also got chased by hotel security."

"Sounds like a party." Temari commented.

"Dive bombed the pool?" Ten-ten asked. "How high was this building?"

"Almost as high as the dive board used for professional diving. Everyone in the pool scattered. It was a huge splash."

"Was he alright?" Ten-ten asked

"He laughed."

"I like this guy." Temari smiled picturing it all. Hinata shook her head.

"You would think he was annoying." Hinata told her. "Hanabi got a crush."

"Aww! Who is it?" Both girls asked instantly.

"Tobi." she answered as they. "Hanabi hated him from the minute she met him so they didn't get along. Tobi usually just ignores her or is completely oblivious to her snipes. She got annoyed with him two days before we came back and he must have finally had it with her and told her off. I wasn't there. Apparently Tobi is not all happy and excitable four year old and can be a 'dark and dangerous guy filled with deception and mystery' her words not mine."

Temari and Ten-ten giggled but said nothing. Hanabi obviously liked the tall dark and mysterious guys.

Hinata continued. "So she did a complete one-eighty and like him. Sasuke Itachi and I tried to warn her that it wouldn't work and she should just not pursue it. We really did try but she wouldn't listen to us."

"Why shouldn't she?"

"He had a girlfriend?" Ten-ten asked. They were both leaning forward now.

"No." Hinata answered with a serious face to match the story. "She wouldn't listen to us and when we were on our way to the airport she managed to get to be the only person in the car he was driving. They were alone the entire trip. Apparently Hanabi used the alone time to confess."

"This is getting good. What happened?"

"She was shot down. Immediately."

"What? Why?"

"There was no thinking time just an immediate no."

"Whyyyy?" both girl whined. They were both into the story now.

"Now this is what Hanabi told me. When she asked and he said no and she asked why, he said 'Silly, Tobi can't date Hanabi, Hanabi too young, how old you think Tobi is?' She told him she thought he was seventeen or something. So then he says 'no, no. Tobi is twenty six, twenty seven in two months! Gonna be awesome!'

Shocked silence.

"Hold on. So the guy who dive bombed the pool and got chased by hotel security is thirty in just about three years?" Ten-ten asked and Hinata nodded. "College student?"

"Final year." Hinata answered.

"I like this guy." Temari said for the second time that afternoon.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but Hanabi is thirteen, right?"

"Yea."

"That's thirteen years. Twice her age literally." Ten-ten said still in shock.

"'I fell in love with someone who was twice my age.'" Temari sang then began to cackle.

"How did she not realise he was that old?" Ten-ten asked and Hinata shrugged.

He acts young, looks young and looks too cool to be his actual age even the eye patch looks cool.

"Eye patch? He has an eye patch?" Temari paused in her laughter to ask and returned to it the moment Hinata nodded. "I definitely like this guy!"

"He had an accident with his eyes when he was younger." Hinata told her.

"Maybe he's a government experiment like Kakashi-sensei." Temari suggested

"They are almost the same age." Hinata stated thoughtfully with a small smile.

"Don't tease people about their bad eyes." Ten-ten admonished but now both Hinata and Temari where giggling.

"Ten-ten. Temari." Hinata began suddenly serious. Both girls immediately quieted down. "The final price of my trip I have to share: I figured out how to help Sasuke."

"The gang stuff?" Ten-ten asked while Temari remained oddly quiet. Hinata nodded and immediately jumped into an explanation of the idea. The girls listened in rapt attention and in increasing shock. When she was finally finished they were both silent. Ten-ten was thoughtfully thinking it through as Hinata nervously watched when Temari spoke.

"I'm in." she said in rigid determination. Her whole posture was serious. "I understand the plan and it does stand a chance of working. You're gonna need the help. I can promise you that Gaara and Kankuro are in too. The Sabaku family is with you."

"Thank you." Hinata said with a grateful smile. I don't want to put you in harm's way.

"Naw. I'm a big girl, I can take it. I've done this before." Temari said waving her off. "It's pretty much the family business."

"It's not my family business but I'll help too. I'm in." Ten-ten said

"Thanks you guys." Hinata said pulling them into a hug. "We can't tell Neji. He'll try to get in the way."

"Sure." Temari said while Ten-ten nodded determinedly. They couldn't have Neji stopping them. "What now?"

"There's someone I need to talk to."

XX

The silence was almost deafening as Hinata waited with bated breath for an answer or a comment from the newest person who knew of the plan. They were sitting at an empty sitting area in the mall's food court. It was almost nerve-wracking to wait as he thought about from possibly every angle and with every possibility it presented.

"Ok. What do you want from me?" he finally said leaning back to look at Hinata with the calculating eyes of a business man. "You wouldn't tell if you didn't need something."

"I need to speak to someone." Hinata answered his question calmly. "I need an audience with your boss."

He nodded in understanding. "Leader. We don't get paid."

"Leader." she acquiesced with a gently nod.

"Do you believe you will be able to handle it all? This is not a joking matter." he asked watching her with narrowed, stern, serious eyes that held of red from focus.

"I know its not." she said meeting his eyes head on. "I have thought on it many times and I believe I can do it. Of course I will need help."

"You will have it." he said. "I will arrange a meeting but then it's up to you to get the compliance of our Leader."

"Of course." she said. "Thank you Itachi."

"You know Sasuke won't agree with this right?" he asked his eyes softening.

"I know." she answered.

"How do you like biscotti?" he asked surprising her at the abrupt change in topic. His small smirk smile was once again gracing his face. "Mother made a batch and I have a few extra."

"I like them very much." she answered also smiling.

XX

Sasuke's day sucked. It had been boring. He had spent most of the morning in bed then the rest into the afternoon texting and playing video games as best the cast would let him without feeling too weird. He munched on biscotti from his mother and ignored texts and phone calls from Sakura. Why she was calling him was beyond his reasoning capabilities. He was on his seventh can of soda for the last hour and a half and fourteenth shift looking to be comfortable in the last ten minutes when he got the phone call he had been waiting on for days just when he had decided to not touch the phone again. He could tell by the special ringtone exactly go it was. He could see the name and picture through the glass centre table from his place lying with his head hanging off the sofa upside down and his feet over the back of the sofa. He dropped the video game controls and scrambled up before knocking over his can of soda on the floor and tripping over the rug to snatch the phone off the table before his body his the floor only just preventing his arm from jarring too much.

"Hello?" he answered coolly as he arranged himself on the floor.

"Hey." her voice came through the phone quietly. He had thought she had forgotten or deleted his number. That thought hurt a little.

"Soo..." Sasuke finally said and mentally breathed himself 'just great you sound like an idiot.'

"Meet me at the park." Hinata told him and he found himself jumping up eagerly and nodding.

"Yea ok. Now?" he said remembering she couldn't see him.

"Yes." she answered.

"Ok. Fifteen minutes." he was already up the stairs when she answered with an 'ok' and hung up. What followed was the quickest bath and change of clothes that Sasuke had ever done in his entire life. He was out of the house in ten minutes and parking the car in the park parking lot in the next five. When he got out of the car and made his way to the park's entrance he found Hinata already waiting on him. She stood just inside the gates with her hand stuck into the pockets of her jacket. It didn't snow in Konoha but it did get very cold and rainy over the Christmas holidays. She was dressed for the weather. Even he had to switch his usual jacket for a thicker one before he left.

She spotted him before we was half way to the gate and watched him approach even as she shifted on her toes. She looked him up and down when he was finally standing before her.

"Hey." he said attempting a small smile.

"Hey." she answered with a small smile of her own. They spent the next minute just looking at each other. Sasuke suddenly realised that her hair was a lot longer than when he had first started noticing her. He was liking the long hair, it fit her.

"So, you wanted to see me?" he asked with barely veiled anxiety. This was literally the first time he was talking to her face to face in two weeks, since she visited him in the hospital.

"Walk with me." she said after a moment and Sasuke inwardly cringed.

'That can't be good.' he thought but turned to begin walking alongside her into the park.

"How are you?" Hinata asked eying the arm wearing the cast.

"Fine. No pain or anything. You?"

She shrugged. "When are you going to get it off?"

"They're going to look at it in a few days." he told her. "We'll know then. It will hopefully be off before we have to go back to school."

"That's good."

"And you? Do you still hate me?"

"I don't hate you." she said then clarified seeing an eyebrow raised in question. "I hate what you did."

"You do know that I won't apologise that I did it, don't you?" He said not looking at her. He wasn't sure he could. "I'll apologise for doing it but not that I did it."

"I know." she agreed. She did know. It wasn't something Sasuke would do. "I get it."

"Do you?" he asked genuinely surprised. He hadn't expected that.

"I understand that you thought you were doing the right thing." she said with a shrug before adding wistfully. "I like to think that it hurt you at least almost as much as it hurt me."

"It did. I didn't want to hurt you." he stated honestly. Hinata could feel it in the solemnity of his words.

"Then why?" Hinata asked with a frown.

"I'd rather you hurt than dead." He said simply. Hinata looked up at him as they came to a stop before a shallow pond. "Ultimately perfectly fine would be best but it doesn't seem likely."

"It really doesn't seem likely." Hinata agreed.

"You said you would stick to me," Sasuke said turning to face her. She returned the favour. "Are you sure you still want to do that?"

"Yes. This is something I have thought about." she said firmly. She held a hand out to him. He took her hand into his. "I want to be there with you. Stand by you."

"Thank you." he said encasing her hand in both of his before giving it a kiss. He might not have said it in as much words but she understood he was saying 'thank you for a second chance.'

She smiled at him.

"You're beautiful." he said softly. Hinata blushed before clearing her throat and looking away but she didn't let go of his hand.

Now for the other reason I wanted to talk to you." Hinata said getting her face back under control. "I figured out a way to help you with Hebi."

Sasuke watched her with furrowed brows. "Um. I really don't think you can help with that. I'll find a way to deal with it."

"You said it yourself; you can't just get out of this." Hinata said turning back to him. He nodded. He did remember saying that. "I have an idea of how we can help you out of Hebi."

"Ok. What is this idea?" Sasuke asked still frowning. He personally didn't believe there was any way to fix his problem with Hebi.

Hinata strengthened her resolve. This was the hard part. "We form a gang."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"Ok. What is this idea?" Sasuke asked still frowning. He personally didn't believe there was any way to fix his problem with Hebi. 

Hinata strengthened her resolve. This was the hard part. "We form a gang."

"I'm sorry what?"

"We form a gang." Hinata repeated.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke asked getting a sinking feeling.

"We make a gang of our own."

"We, as in you and me?" he asked and she nodded. "No. Just no. You can't."

"What makes you think you have a say in this?" Hinata asked angrily and Sasuke was quiet. She took a breath and tightened her hold on his hand before continuing. "Hear me out."

He looked at her. He didn't like this. Not in the least but this was her idea and he had to at least listen to her. "Fine. Explain."

"Ok. You said that you can't get out of this, you can't get out of the gang business." she said and nodded along with him when he did. "But what if we don't take you out of the gang business just out of Hebi?"

"I can't go Akatsuki and the other gang are shit. Akatsuki is the only gang that could protect me. The only hand that actually goes against Hebi."

"I figured as much that's why I'm going to talk to Pein."

"He won't take me. Ever." Sasuke protested. "Even if Itachi is my brother. Never."

"But he won't be taking you. I will." Hinata stated easily and Sasuke openly stared at her.

"What?" Sasuke asked incredulously

"We are going to form our own gang." Hinata said and Sasuke gave her a quizzical look.

"What does Akatsuki have to do with this?" he asked

"Alliance." she answered.

"So let me get this straight," Sasuke said stepping away to begin pacing. "You want to form a gang and an alliance with Akatsuki for protection?"

"Yes."

"Question. You're going to form a brand new gang with just the two of us?" Sasuke asked agitatedly. His mind was running too quickly for him to stay still. "Let's not forget that new gangs are on the shit list and so any new gangs get stomped quicker than bubble-gum sticks to shoes. Pein won't even want to ally with a shitty gang of two."

"It wouldn't be just the two of us. So far it's five plus you."

"Five?" he asked surprised. "Who?"

"Temari, Gaara, Kankuro, Ten-ten and me." she answered. "Obviously you are number six."

"Are you serious? Them?"

"Yea."

"What can they do? What can they defend?"

"Before Temari and her brothers moved here they had a reputation in Suna. Even after first moving here they kept up that reputation. They were called the Sand Siblings. Both because of their last name and where Suna is and of course because they are siblings."

"The Sand Siblings?" Sasuke muttered thoughtfully. "Well shit. We've had monsters on our team for years. No wonder Suna teams generally avoid them. They pretty much run when Gaara come one to play goalkeeper."

"I assume we're on the same page for that one." Hinata stated watching him. He was still going through his mind for clues that he might have missed. "Ten-ten might not have a rep but she's good with sharp objects. I can also defend myself."

"Ok. So how do you plan to even get this to work?" he asked then.

"We steal you away duh." she said as if it was obvious.

After listening to Hinata's plan, Sasuke couldn't deny that it was a good one, a very elaborate plan. They were still standing by the pond when she was finish. They were not touching or looking at each other but they were close.

"Can we give this some time for me to think on this and get back to you?" Sasuke finally asked.

"Of course. I didn't expect you to agree with me right away." Hinata told him.

"Great." he mumbled to himself before speaking to her. "Can we go on a date and forget this plan for a while?"

"Yea." she answered slipping her hand into his. After so long it was comfortable to feel her hand in his. They turned away from the water and began a walk through the rest of the park.

"I missed you." Sasuke confessed shifting his hands to lace their fingers together. Hinata blushed but quickly pushed it away. Thankfully Sasuke wasn't looking her way.

"I tried not to think about it." she told him and followed him when he gently pulled her out of the park. "I missed you too."

"Lunch?"

"Lunch was a while ago." she teased.

"Dinner?" he compromised.

"Nothing too..." Hinata began but couldn't find the word she was looking for. Sasuke raised a brow at her in amusement.

"Posh?" he offered and she smiled at him. He had missed that smile.

"Not the word I was looking for but it works." She said easily. They were already back in the parking lot and approaching Sasuke's car. It was funny how easily she fell back into walk with him to his car, how quickly she accepted a drive from him.

"Is a burger fine with you?" he asked unlocking the door with remote and holding the door open for Hinata.

"Of course. It's a burger!" she said as she got into the car. He closed the door and hurried around to the driver's seat. As he started the car he thought about how he had never seen Hinata around the wheel.

"Do you have a learner's license?"

"Yea?" she answered incredulously. She hadn't expected that question.

"How come you never drive?" he asked keeping his eyes on the road.

"Neji always drives me or a chauffeur does. Neji usually gives me lessons or my father but that's usually on holidays or weekends. They prefer to do the driving."

"So can you?" he asked

"Yes. I'll eventually get my own car."

"Want to drive?" he offered

"Really?" she asked

"I have my old learner's sign in the back."

"In your mom's car?" she asked with a smile. He glanced at her and gave her a small smile.

"That's where I learned to drive officially."

"And unofficially?" she asked.

"With Itachi in the street races." he answered remembering the times he snuck out with Itachi to the races. That was before Hebi. After that things got complicated.

"Figures. Well thanks but no. It's sweet of you to offer though. I know you guys don't like giving over control of your cars." Hinata said with a smile. She looked over at Sasuke as he finally pulled into a Burger King driveway. He was undeniable attractive. A part of her still questioned why he was with her a little even now. There were so many things he was and so many things he wasn't. He wasn't nice or even half sweet. He was often cold and harsh with a glare that could melt or freeze people regularly. He was the Ice Prince of the entire school just like Ino was the Queen Bitch and Gaara was the King of Doom. They were the people that nobody messed with unless they were stupid. If Gaara walked into a room looked at you and cracked his knuckles you were doomed. Evidently she was both stupid and smart. Stupid to mess with Sakura and Ino and smart to be friends with Temari and her brothers.

"What?" Sasuke asked bringing her attention back to him. She hasn't even realised that they had stopped and that Sasuke had turned to her.

"Nothing. Just thinking." she told him and flushed in embarrassment at being caught just staring at him. She got out if the car and walked in with him.

"Do I want to know what you were thinking about?" Sasuke asked teasingly.

"School. The hierarchy." she answered and he gave her a quizzical look. "Do you guys actually have royal meetings?"

Sasuke stared at her almost half a minute before he chuckled. "No. We are from completely different kingdoms and so we hardly ever get along with each other."

They quickly ordered, received their food and found a table. They were halfway through their food when Sasuke asked another question.

"What are you going to do when Orochimaru finds out that your gang is new?" he asked this question had obviously been bothering him. With good reason, Orochimaru could be vicious when he felt like if and that was more often than not.

"He won't. We'll lie and say we've been around since before you joined Hebi." She answered and he shot her a doubtful look. "Akatsuki would agree with us and even produce proof of agreement if necessary."

"Why are you doing this?" he asked. Another question that was bothering him.

"Because I like you more than I usually like people and this will help." she answered honestly and his eyes widened as he stated at her. "It would suck if you had to hate me even if I know you don't want to."

"Oh." he uttered. His eyes were as wide as saucers. Hinata had to look away and take a large bite of her burger to stifle her laughter. His look was too cute. "Ok."

"Ok?" she asked.

"Ok." he nodded lost in his own thoughts.

'OMG! Sasuke is practically speechless! He doesn't know what to say!' Hinata marvelled. She had made Sasuke speechless and lost! Or was his brain just temporarily on shutdown?

"Great." she said smiling.

The next day found Sasuke pulling into the driveway of the Sabaku house. It was the day before Christmas Eve which is why Hinata's 'gang' was meeting for the first time officially at the Sabaku home. He slipped out of the car just as Kankuro came through the front door carrying two six pack soda.

"Hey man! We're around back. Gaara is frying the chicken." Kankuro greeted him as he came down the front porch.

"Chicken?" Sasuke asked approaching him.

"Yea. There has to be food if we're doing some serious chatting." Kankuro informed him as he offered one of the six packs to Sasuke to carry before clapping him on the back with his free hand and a smile. Sasuke offered him a slight tilt of his lips in return. He understood Kankuro slap as a 'totally here for you dude' and Kankuro understood his smile as a 'thank you'. The moment they stepped into the backyard Kankuro announced. "Food's almost ready."

"Great." Ten-ten voiced from her seat beside Hinata around the picnic table that was set with various types of finger food.

"I'm telling you Gaara's chicken is the best!" Temari announced just as she sat around the picnic table. Kankuro set the sodas down near her. She suddenly noticed Sasuke when he put his load there too. "Hey Chicken Ass. What's up?"

"Chicken Ass?" He asked. She obviously had not decided on what his nickname should be as yet.

"Don't like that? How about Tail Feathers?" Temari asked in mock concern. Sasuke looked at her with raised eyebrows as Kankuro, Hinata and Ten-ten laughed.

"How are those even related to me?" Sasuke asked taking a seat across from her but beside Hinata.

"Have you seen the back of your head recently?" Ten-ten asked and Sasuke self-consciously reached his hand there. Hinata chuckled while Temari and Kankuro laughed heartily.

"Fresh from the pan." Gaara announced carrying out a large dish filled with his fried chicken and proudly placed it on the table. "Organic fry chicken."

"Doesn't frying it spoil the organicity of the chicken?" Sasuke asked and Gaara gave him his most threatening blank look. Sasuke actually flinched.

"Don't question Gaara's cooking." Kankuro stated before motioning for Gaara to sit beside him. "Who wants to grace our already tasty looking meal?"

"Grace?"

"You have a lot of questions." Gaara commented and Sasuke shrugged.

"I'll do it." Hinata volunteered and the table quickly fell silent. She offered her grace and soon they were all digging into the food present on the table and having idle conversation. They were half way through the meal when the main topic finally came up.

"So have we decided yet?" Kankuro asked in the middle of the make-shift burger he had built.

"Decided? On what?" Ten-ten asked. She was already finished and sipping her soda. It had been a great meal.

"On what we are going to name the gang." Kankuro answered as if it was obvious.

"No actuality. I haven't given it much thought." Hinata said thoughtfully as she picked up another piece of chicken. It was really good chicken.

"It's your gang and you're not thinking about these things?" Sasuke asked surprised.

"The thought never occurred to me." Hinata answered defensively. Sasuke rolled his eyes at her.

"Well you have to think of one. You're the boss." Kankuro stated and everyone turned their attention to the Hyuga heiress.

"I'm the boss?" Hinata asked wide eyed.

"Duh." the three siblings said before Ten-ten asked "Who'd you think it would be?"

Hinata quickly pointed at Sasuke. He shook his head instantly.

"Not plausible. They would never believe that the gang leader would send himself out as a spy. That's what grunts and lesser officers are for." Sasuke stated putting away the food for the moment. He turned to Hinata with a critical eye. "Truthfully I'm wondering how you're going to make them believe you could be the boss. You're gonna have to be tough. Take a page out of Temari or Gaara's book or out of both or the entire book of either or both of their books."

"Hey! What about mine?" Kankuro whined. "I'm pretty tough."

"You're the annoying kind of tough." Sasuke stated completely disregarding Kankuro toughness. He then went into lecture mode. "Temari is more the dictator tough. The 'Do as I says or suffer immediately' kind that also says 'look at me I will destroy you if you so much as look at he too hard'. Gaara on the other hand is more of a slow kill tough. The 'I'll make you suffer slowly if you defy me' kind that also says 'I'll sneak up on you when you least expect it.' You have to decide how you will lead us and how you will project yourself."

"She's getting there." Temari stated proudly. "Continue dating you for a while longer and she'll be tougher than ever."

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment." Sasuke commented with a raised brow. "But I will assume it is."

"Good now, so figure out a name, be tough, what else?"

"Posting." Sasuke answered and sighed when he saw their blank looks. "Giving specific jobs to person. Departmentalising. We have few people so each person can just be in charge of something."

"Ok so I'm boss. You're second in command." Hinata said to Sasuke and he gaped at her. She ignored him. "What is everybody else good at?"

"Second in command?" Sasuke asked but was again ignored. The others ignored him as well.

"I have underground connections." Gaara stated. "I haven't been keeping them in like in a while. I think I should remind them that I still live here."

"I can provide weapons. You'd be surprised how many sharp object dad has." Ten-ten stated. "Doesn't help that he sells guns either."

"No guns." both Sasuke and Hinata stated. Ten-ten shrugged.

"I can take care of more obvious attacks. Get rid of things you don't want. Discreetly." Kankuro said smirking at just the thought of the job.

"I'm surprised you know that word." Sasuke commented and Kankuro made a face at him.

"I'll take care of anything else that needs dealing with." Temari put in.

"Ok. That's what you'll do then." Hinata told them with a nod.

"You're going to need a tech guy." Sasuke commented. "Technological warfare is become quite dominant these days."

"A hacker?" Kankuro asked. He was still stuffing his face with food. "We really need one?"

"We are running an operation people, we need everything." Hinata stated.

"I know exactly who we need." Temari smiled.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My precious readers it is with great sorrow that I inform you that all my fics will be on hiatus. I'm an unsure of how long but at least for a few months. Just after I was getting back into it too. I do plan of finishing this though so keep following so that you will know when the next chap is out. That might not be for awhile but it will come.

Chapter 22

The next afternoon the group minus Kakuro and Gaara were sitting in a bar-b-que joint in the mall eating lunch. Kankuro and Gaara were busy at their workplaces so were unable to be with them waiting. The place was almost packed with the midday rush and they had been lucky to get a seat that could seat them all. Luckily the the crowd was lessening now that they had gotten their meal.

"I don't think I'm in the loop here." Sasuke finally stated when then had finished eating and were just sitting around enjoying each others company. "Why are we here?"

"We're scouting, well actually just waiting." Temari answered as she looked around at the other patrons for the umpteenth time. She had been doing it ever since they came in.

"Waiting for?" he prompted. He hated not knowing things. Especially things that involved him.

"Shut up and wait, Ketchup Boy." Temari said with a glare. He glared right back at her for teasing him about the amount of ketchup he used. It's not his fault ketchup is made of tomatoes and he liked tomatoes.

"Be nice you two." Ten-ten sighed from across the table. Whose idea was it to but Temari and Sasuke beside each other?

"Who are we waiting on Temari?" Hinata asked watching them with an amused look. It was always interesting when they were in the same room.

"Here they are!" the blonde said excitedly as she stared down the two that had just entered the restaurant. The others turned to look as well.

"Shikamaru and Chouji?" Hinata asked confused. Why would the possible be waiting on them?

"That's who we've been waiting on?" Sasuke asked. If he had known then we wouldn't have thought they would have been here early.

"Why are we waiting on them?" Ten-ten asked giving Temari a quizzical look.

"We need a hacker right?" she states getting there attention. "Shikamaru is good at that stuff. He does the grade changing at school for money."

"I hope you don't know this because you're changing any grades." Ten-ten gave her a disapproving look. Temari rolled her eyes.

"No but Kankuro does. He sucks at history." Temari told them. "He thinks I don't know but I do. Nobody with his level of suckage could get Bs."

"Ok but who says he's hacking corporate buildings level?" Sasuke pointed out. Hinata looked at him with a frown and Ten-ten gave Temari a skeptical look.

"He's a genius." Temari scoffed before looking back towards Shikamaru. "If he doesn't know he'll figure it out faster than us normals ever could."

"I see. Now how do you plan on convincing him to work with us?" Hinata asked

"Normally I would say by using my feminine wiles but that won't work with him." Temari stated as she smiled and waved at Shikamaru abd Choji. both boys looked shocked to be acknowledged. "Instead we should give him a challenge. Something to interest him."

"Which would be?" Ten-ten asked curiously as Sasuke watched on already catching on.

"Tease him with something he hasn't done yet that can be fun yet potentially dangerous and he would immediately class it as troublesome but the kind of troublesome that will tempt him beyond belief." Temari said giving the boys a smile again. Now Shikamaru was giving her an odd look and Chouji was blushing as they ordered. "He'll agree but first we have to corner him and ask nicely until he agrees."

"And if he doesn't?" Sasuke asked and Temari turned in her seat too look at him.

"Then we have to think about employing Gaara's unique persuasive skills." she answered and Sasuke nodded in agreement. Looking to Hinata to see if she approved.

"Lets hope. He agrees before then." Hinata stated after a sigh but agreed none the less. Violence didn't have to be the first course of action even if they were a gang.

"Good. Let her out Bunion." Temari said rising from her seat. Ten-ten got up and let Hinata put of their seat.

"Good luck." she told them as Hinata followed Temari over to the boys. Hinata have her a thumbs up behind her back without looking back. Sasuke shrugged when Ten-ten looked to him for confirmation that this might work.

Temari smiled brightly as she approached them.

"Shikamaru! Chouji!" she said cheerfully as she threw and arm around each of them. Hinata smiled and waved in greeting. "It's so nice to see you both out of school."

"What do you want?" Shikamaru asked getting straight up the point. He had know something was up before she even got up.

"You actually." the blond answered removing her hand from Chouji. She smiled at the bigger boy even as she steered his friend away. "We're borrowing him for a moment."

"Um ok..." Chouji uttered in confusion as the girls leaf his friend away. Hinata had even given him a small smile. He looked back across at Sasuke and Ten-ten who were quite content to watch things happen. If they weren't worried why should be be?

"So Pineapple, do you like girls or boys?" Temari asked pulling him towards the bathrooms.

"Girls. Why-" he began to answer but was cut off by Tenari pushing him into the girls' bathroom. "What are you-"

"Shut up Fruit." Temari told him and he sighed with an irrited look. Hinata was leaned against the row of counter connecting the sinks. She had a perfectly blank look that he had never seen on her before. Odd. "We have a proposition for you."

"A proposition?" Shikamaru repeated with a bored look but his mind was working a mile a minute to figure out what they could possible want from him. There was nothing he could think about that they could possibly want from him unless it involved homework maybe. People just wanted him for his brain most times.

"Something to occupy your time."

"I already have something that does that. It's called sleep."

"Oh he's funny too. Knew I liked him." Temari said to Hinata. She turned sparkling eyes back to him. "Something else completely."

"Wow me." he said sarcastically.

"We want you to going a gang." Temari said bluntly. Shikamaru stated at her for a full minute just processing the statement and waiting for the punch line. It didn't come.

"You're serious." he stated and

"Obviously." Temari stated with an impressive roll of the eyes. "I don't mouth off, Brains. Hinata don't joke like that either."

"Ok." he said slowly and looking between both of them cautiously. "What would you need me for?"

"Hacking."

"How would I do that?" he asked.

"Don't be stupid, we know you can." Temari chided with another roll of her eyes. He looked from Temari to Hinata again. Hinata had yet to say anything. She merely watched with a blank look from where she was leaned quite comfortably against the counter. She didn't even seem to be paying attention and was merely staring at the wall opposite her and away from Temari and himself.

"What about you?" he asked her and Hinata turned her away from the wall. She stared into his eyes with her own pale blank eyes.

"What about me?" she asked flatly in a tone that suggested she was asking what he wanted to know about her.

"What's your part in all of this?" he asked slightly unnerved by flatness of her voice and the eery blankness of her face and the almost lifeless nature her pale eyes had taken on. It was so unnerving it bordered on intimidating. It was such an abnormal thing to see on Hinata who was usually so sweet and caring and shy. She wasn't so shy looking recently but this was no where near her usual behaviour.

"I call the shots." she said simply before turning her attention elsewhere. From the widening of his eyes she could tell he was shocked.

"You?" Shikamaru asked disbelievingly.

"Yea. Got a problem?" Temari asked instead with a glare. His attention was immediately brought back to her.

"No." he answered quickly. Nobody was stupid enough to not listen to Temari and absolute no one was crazy enough to disagree with her when she had a glare like that pinned on them. "Why do you need me though? Couldn't it have been anyone else?"

"No. We only want the best with the potential to get even better." Temari told him in a blasé manner. "Dude it's the only thing you enjoy other than sleeping."

"Say yes." Hinata told him but she wasn't looking at him. He absently thought 'that wall must be very interesting'. He looked from Temari to Hinata with a thoughtful yet bored look as he thought about the offer for another minute.

"When do I start?" he finally asked and Temari grinned widely.

"Hand me your phone." she said and immediately snatched it from him when he pulled it out. She quickly tapped her number into the phone as she spoke. "I was beginning to think I might have to use 'reason' and 'persuasion'"

"You would have punched me?" Shikamaru asked

"Punching you would be the least of what I would do to you." she told him as the took a picture of herself for the contact photo.

"You would have let her do that?" Shekakaru asked Honata. He believed that Temari would have hurt him badly. There were still rumours going around about her and her brothers and that was a few years ago. People could change but people like her would never forget how to completely destroy someone. Hinata was sweet and innocent.

Hinata turned her eyes back to him with a small smile. "What kind of boss would I be if I didn't try all means necessary?"

"Yup. She'd let me." Temari stated at his shocked look before quickly snapping a pic of Hinata and handing it to Shikamaru.

"We'll call you." Hinata stated before leaving the bathroom.

"You're taking me out to dinner this weekend." Temari told him before leaving as well.

"Ok." He muttered.


End file.
